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John Starr highlights some recent instances where natural justice was found to have been breached, as well as cases where it wasn’t ‘While certain non-material breaches of natural justice can be ignored, it will only be proper to do so if there is a positive indication that the breach has not been material.’ In ‘Justifiable …
Continue reading "Construction Focus: Natural justice in adjudication"
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Recent cases have questioned the longheld view that an unreasonable deposit is a penalty that can be repaid in full, as Laurie Heller finds out ‘Modern English courts do not appear to apply penalty rules to deposits or to clauses providing for forfeiture of sums that have already been paid.’ In a contract for the …
Continue reading "Deposits: New thoughts on forfeiture of deposits"
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Neil Ham considers the decision in Avocet and its broader consequences for landlords and tenants ‘If equality and fairness prevail, break conditions will either be absent or, more commonly, provide that at the break date the basic annual rent will be up to date and the premises vacant.’ The exercise of a break right by …
Continue reading "Commercial Lease Breaks: Give me a break"
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Stephen Barry assesses the intricacies of mineral reservations in the context of recent case law ‘Most types of “mineral” have all been held by the courts in various instances either to be included in a mineral reservation or to be excluded from it. Much depends on the wording of the individual reservation, and its meaning …
Continue reading "Mineral Reservations: Finding a way through the minefield"
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Magnus Hassett examines three recent high-profile court decisions and what they mean for landowners and their advisers ‘In the three cases considered, the court concluded that the law did not allow them to compensate the claimants for their injuries, no matter how desirable that outcome might seem given the catastrophic and life-changing injuries suffered by …
Continue reading "Occupiers: The extent of the duty"
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Jane Rogers reviews recent case law relating to relevance of previous expert determinations ‘In a sluggish market where direct market evidence is scarce, valuers often have to fall back on the rents determined by third-party surveyors acting as independent expert or arbitrator.’ Valuers and lawyers alike, engaged in the business of establishing the open-market rental …
Continue reading "Expert Determination: Use in a rent review or lease renewal"
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Gillian Baxter reflects on when an informally created easement is enforceable against a purchaser of the land over which it is exercised ‘To provide greater certainty, the Land Registration Act 2002 reduced the number of unregistered rights that bind a purchaser, making it even more important that easements are protected on the register.’ A recent …
Continue reading "Easements: Protect it or lose it!"
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Ben Gildea considers the current position in respect of how a person’s entitlement to the equitable interest in a property may be ascertained following a leading Supreme Court decision. ‘From now on, a party may argue that the terms on which their equitable interests are held have changed over time.’ In Britain, there are more …
Continue reading "Co-Ownership: Breaking up is hard to do"
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Nicholas Cheffings looks at Mary Portas’ report on how to revive the high street ‘There is a fairly fundamental difference between having a unit occupied for the sake of it and having a unit occupied in a way that actually enhances the high street.’On 13 December 2011, a report on the BBC suggested that a …
Continue reading "The Portas Review: The landlord’s perspective"
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Kate Andrews discusses a case that highlights the costs consequences of a refusal to consider ADR Furst QC confirmed in PGF that the burden rested on the claimant to demonstrate why there should be a departure from the general rule that the claimant should be liable for the defendant’s costs. The recent case of PGF …
Continue reading "ADR: A health warning"
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