header-logo header-logo

Thou shalt not trespass

13 March 2015 / Stephen Boyd
Issue: 7644 / Categories: Features , Property
printer mail-detail
nlj_7644_boyd

Stephen Boyd tells a cautionary tale

Mr Dawoodi owns a house (Blackacre) in Wood Green. It is his main UK residence, but he travels extensively and has homes in other countries. He resides at the property at least once a month, usually for about a week. Blackacre encompasses at its southern extremity part of a narrow path (the path), some 37 inches wide, which extends east from the road. Such paths are a fairly typical feature in North and South London developments built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their purpose was to permit deliveries to the rear of the adjacent residential properties, primarily of coal.

By the time Dawoodi acquired Blackacre, the path was no longer in use and had been blocked off at the road end by the previous owner, who explained that it had been used as an access route by burglars. Dawoodi therefore took the opportunity to build a substantial shed which not only went up to the brick wall at the end of his garden, which

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Muckle LLP—Ella Johnson

Real estate dispute resolution team welcomes newly qualified solicitor

Morr & Co—Dennis Phillips

Morr & Co—Dennis Phillips

International private client team appoints expert in Spanish law

NLJ Career Profile: Stefan Borson, McCarthy Denning

NLJ Career Profile: Stefan Borson, McCarthy Denning

Stefan Borson, football finance expert head of sport at McCarthy Denning, discusses returning to the law digging into the stories behind the scenes

NEWS
Michael Zander KC, emeritus professor at LSE, revisits his long-forgotten Crown Court Study (1993), which surveyed 22,000 participants across 3,000 cases, in the first of a two-part series for NLJ
Getty Images v Stability AI Ltd [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch) was a landmark test of how UK law applies to AI training—but does it leave key questions unanswered, asks Emma Kennaugh-Gallagher of Mewburn Ellis in NLJ this week
Cryptocurrency is reshaping financial remedy cases, warns Robert Webster of Maguire Family Law in NLJ this week. Digital assets—concealable, volatile and hard to trace—are fuelling suspicions of hidden wealth, yet Form E still lacks a section for crypto-disclosure
NLJ columnist Stephen Gold surveys a flurry of procedural reforms in his latest 'Civil way' column
Paper cyber-incident plans are useless once ransomware strikes, argues Jack Morris of Epiq in NLJ this week
back-to-top-scroll