header-logo header-logo

14 February 2025
Issue: 8104 / Categories: Legal News , Property , Landlord&tenant , Housing , Nuisance
printer mail-detail

NLJ this week: Lessons from the 2024 crop of real estate litigation

From moths in the attic to the right to manage, 2024 provided a plethora of landmark real estate litigation cases. In this week’s NLJ, Ben Hatton, director of property litigation, Jordan Gulwell, lawyer, and Natasha Vij, trainee solicitor, at Clifford Chance, survey the stand-out cases and set out some lessons to learn from each.

These include the £36m claim regarding moths in a Notting Hill mansion, in which the High Court has just handed down judgment. Who could have guessed these little winged creatures could cause such havoc?

Other issues highlighted in the past year include whether a roof garden is an extra storey and the scope of the right to manage a mixed-use development. Hatton, Gulwell and Vij provide a succinct and informative overview of the main cases. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

London Solicitors Litigation Association—John McElroy

Fieldfisher partner appointed president as LSLA marks milestone year

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Kingsley Napley—Kirsty Churm & Olivia Stiles

Firm promotes two lawyers to partnership across employment and family

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Foot Anstey—five promotions

Firm promotes five lawyers to partnership across key growth areas

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
back-to-top-scroll