Real estate disputes

Penningtons Manches Cooper’s dedicated real estate disputes team provides expert advice on the full range of property related disputes as well as specialist guidance on landlord and tenant matters. Our lawyers’ broad technical knowledge is complemented by their extensive practical experience.

Property dispute specialists

Acting for both landlords and tenants gives us perspective and enables us to understand the key concern and priorities of the other parties. We regularly represent clients in issues involving more than one jurisdiction.

Our clients range from investment managers with large and varied real estate portfolios to office occupiers and retailers, as well as charities and individuals with smaller portfolios. We work closely with institutional landlords, investment funds and housing providers in the UK living sector.

Our team is ranked by Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession and The Legal 500 and recommended for the quality of its work. We have a strong track record in both devising strategies to avoid disputes developing and in resolving those that do occur as cost effectively as possible. This includes a detailed knowledge of all forms of dispute resolution ranging from small scale mediations and adjudication to full blown arbitration and litigation, both in the UK and internationally.

The team consists of a group of very talented, dedicated, and personable professionals that are invested in understanding the client’s business.

We recognise that major disputes absorb significant resources in terms of both management time and costs. Accordingly and where appropriate to the business needs of clients, we use a variety of alternative dispute resolution techniques, such as expert determination, mediation and arbitration.

While we act for clients in all courts and tribunals, much of our work involves advice on ways to manage problems, for example how to handle lease breaks, so that they can be resolved without the need to issue proceedings. Our lawyers are members of the Property Litigation Association.

How we help our clients

Building and fire safety law

Residential building and estate management

Enfranchisement, lease extensions and rights of first refusal

Co-ownership disputes and trust of land

Commercial landlord and tenant insolvency

Commercial asset management

Telecoms and the electronic communications code

Transactional support work

Trespass, encroachment and nuisance

Land interference: rights of way and rights to light

Development and partnership disputes

Purchase and disposal issues

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Useful resources

Costs law services

A first rate property litigation team. One of the top real estate litigation firms in the UK in terms of respect and ability.

They are very professional and go the extra mile for clients. They are a personal team that provide detailed briefs and good quality work.

They provide excellent client service, with quick responses that never feel rushed. Everyone is eager to help out if needed.

The entire team are excellent at handling complex instructions. They are all really clear thinkers and are able to provide clear and succinct advice at all times.

Recent work highlights

Apportionment of service charge

Acting for Aviva in the recent Supreme Court case of Aviva v Williams in relation to a complex service charge dispute focusing on the ability of the landlord unilaterally to vary the apportionment of charges.

Landmark court ruling

Representing the respondents in the Court of Appeal in No 1 West India Quay (Residential) Limited v East Tower Apartments Ltd, one of the leading cases in relation to applications for consents.

Vacant possession strategy

Advising a commercial landlord on obtaining vacant possession of a mast site let under lease, which allowed the complete redevelopment of the site, generating approximately £700 million in revenue.

Tribunal proceedings

Acting for a developer in relation to termination and removal tribunal proceedings concerning apparatus at a development site in Brighton. Consensual agreements were reached in both cases, avoiding a formal hearing.

High street brands

Acting as main legal adviser for several high street brands, delivering regular guidance on payment obligations and lease re-gears. We provided both technical legal support and commercial advice around tactics.

Damages claims

Defending a number of substantial claims by tenants against a landlord over large water leaks caused by a third party at a multi-let, mixed use property on Portobello Road. This included making counterclaims for unpaid rent and service charge.

Multiple tenant CVAs

Providing strategic advice and support to an institutional landlord on multiple tenant CVAs and Part 26A schemes affecting leases within its portfolio.

Favourable lease renewal

Defeating a landlord’s claim opposing the renewal of a lease under the 1954 Act on fault-based grounds, and obtaining a new lease for our retail client who had traded from the premises for several decades, with lower rent than initially demanded.

Pre-action settlement

Settling a rectification claim pre-action for a landlord client where the tenant’s fixed break date in a lease differed from the date in the agreed heads of terms. The settlement achieved payment of a sum representing a year’s rent for the client.

Multiple tenant CVAs

Providing strategic advice and support to an institutional landlord on multiple tenant CVAs and Part 26A schemes affecting leases within its portfolio.

Favourable lease renewal

Pre-action settlement

Case studies

A group of institutional investors engaged us to secure vacant possession of some residential flats above a large block of commercial and retail premises on a well-known London high street.

We acted for the landlord on a contested break notice for a lease of a vacant distribution warehouse. Alleged structural defects to the building’s foundations meant that the tenant had difficulties in complying with its repairing obligations, and this led to disputes over the extent of works necessary to operate the break clause. Proceedings were also issued against the construction team responsible for the original design and the work involved coordinating those proceedings with the landlord and tenant matters.

We acted for the owners of a property over which a claim was made for grazing rights (profits à prendre). The neighbouring landowners own a farm used for rearing polo ponies. They claimed grazing rights over our clients’ land during the spring and summer months. If the claim had been successful, our clients would have been severely constrained in the use of their land.

Our Real estate litigation team advised the potential purchaser and its bankers Rothschild on negotiations to purchase businesses from administrators/receivers where there were major concerns about the validity of charges over properties and the ability of the administrators/receivers to sell those real estate assets.