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Property law update

27 September 2018 / Edward Peters KC , Philip Sissons
Issue: 7810 / Categories: Features , Property
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Edward Peters & Philip Sissons round up a selection of recent property cases

  • Modification of restrictive covenants.
  • Costs guidance in the First-tier Tribunal.
  • Residential property dispute deployment pilot.
  • Horizontal and vertical boundaries.

The Upper Tribunal has a discretionary jurisdiction to modify or discharge restrictive covenants under s 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925). The question of whether the tribunal can and will exercise that jurisdiction in a variety of different factual circumstances is often of substantial financial and personal importance, and continues to produce a steady flow of decisions.

In the recent case of Re Geall [2018] UKUT 154 (LC), the Upper Tribunal decided to exercise its jurisdiction pursuant to s 84 to modify a restrictive covenant to permit the conversion of a barn into a new dwelling house.

The applicant was the owner of property comprising a bungalow and a barn which was used for agricultural storage. The land was subject to restrictive covenants which restricted use of the land to a single private dwelling house. The applicant

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