Articles in ‘Property Disputes’ Category

Can landlords recover their legal costs from tenants if they win at court or a property tribunal?

Recent figures from the Metropolitan Police indicate that prosecutions for squatting in London have fallen dramatically in the eighteen months since the legislation making squatting illegal in residential properties came into force. In the first few months prosecutions hit a peak of 28 in a single month but are now steady at single figures. The legislation therefore appears to be effective in deterring squatters from entering peoples’ homes.

When buying a property there are a many things to consider; the crime rates in the area, the surveyor’s report, the potential returns of investing in commercial property, the proximity of a river to name just a few.

In most cases, issues are resolved during a purchase, the purchaser moves in and lives happily ever after. However, as was the case recently with a professional gambler, a property owner may be shocked to later discover that their humble abode is surrounded by a strip of land they thought was theirs but is, in fact, owned by someone else.

For landowners who own land with development potential, preventing the creation of public and private rights of way over land by long user is always an issue. Such rights can devalue the development potential, or even make development unrealistic when small sites are concerned.

We often have clients wishing to buy small parcel of land from the local farmer to keep ponies or horses in, but they often don’t realise that there may be planning issues. Simply because…