Solicitors Blog | Allan Janes

“Please Sir, can I have some more?”: Just one more house - Restrictive Covenants update

May 22nd 2020 | dispute resolution

In the recent case of Pethick the Upper Tribunal of the Lands Chamber modified a restrictive covenant to allow the building of a further property on land which was subject to a covenant limiting the number to just one house. The Applicants sought to discharge at a restrictive covenant relying read more...

Locked Out in Lockdown? A Commercial Tenant's Guide To Interim Injunctions

April 24th 2020 | dispute resolution

Our Managing Partner recently found himself accidentally locked out of both his home and the office. This tickled me given the rest of us are in lockdown, and gave me the idea for the title of this article. If you are a tenant of commercial premises, and if your landlord read more...

Cancelled Coronations and Coronavirus: Is my contract frustrated?

March 30th 2020 | dispute resolution

As a law student I remember learning about frustration of the purpose of a contract in what became known as the "Coronation cases", which arose from events surrounding the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902. A man hired a room with a view of the street read more...

Unlocking Restrictive Covenants

February 10th 2020 | dispute resolution

Whether you are a homeowner with the benefit of a covenant, want to do a deal for the release of a covenant, or want to challenge a covenant to permit a change of development of land, our property dispute specialists at Allan Janes can help. What are Restrictive covenants? Restrictive read more...

Trusts Affecting Property: Who Owns What?

January 22nd 2020 | dispute resolution

One might be forgiven for thinking that the owner of property is the person named on the deeds or named as proprietor at the Land Registry. There are however a number of ways in which it is possible to establish a beneficial ownership of property. Beneficial ownership is a right read more...

Toby Walker Published in The New Law Journal (The Courts Approach to Costs on Discontinuance)

November 20th 2019 | dispute resolution

I am really pleased to announce that, together with my co-author Winston Jacob, we have recently been published in the New Law Journal. The article covers the Courts' approach to the issue of costs when a claim is discountinued. Please click here for the full article. read more...

Litigation Privilege: The Dangers of Discussing Litigation in Emails

October 22nd 2019 | dispute resolution

We have discussed before in a previous blog post the difficulties in maintaining privilege in documents produced for employment cases within a company. However, there is similar difficulties in maintaining litigation privilege in commercial disputes. But what is privilege? In order to understand privilege, you need to understand the process read more...

Builders, Payments and Building Contracts: Get it Right First Time or Pay the Consequences

July 4th 2019 | dispute resolution

The importance of following the right procedures in the management of payments under a building contract has again been underlined by a recent Court decision. It involved a contractor who applied for payment for building works carried out. The employer disputed the value of the work for which payment was read more...

Do Solicitors Have a Duty to Point Out an Opponent's Mistake?

June 25th 2019 | dispute resolution

In civil litigation, the solicitor’s main duty is to their client and to the court, but to what extent do they have a duty of care to the opposing party? In June 2019, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Woodward & Another v Phoenix Healthcare Distribution Ltd. In read more...

Commercial Lease Renewal and Terminations under the 1954 Landlord & Tenant Act

May 2nd 2019 | dispute resolution

Richard Harriman, a Partner in our Litigation Department who deals with residential and commercial property disputes writes: “Does a tenant of business premises have security of tenure? The answer depends upon the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“The 1954 Act”). There are two elements to the security provided:- Automatic continuation read more...

Can a Contract Be Varied Orally?

March 26th 2019 | dispute resolution

Not if the contract contains a "no oral variation" clause! In the recent case of Rock Advertising Ltd v. MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited, the House of Lords agreed that a contractual licence for a rented office between the parties, which stated that any variations must be signed and in read more...

Rights of Forfeiture and The Importance of Reading Leases Carefully

February 27th 2019 | dispute resolution

The recent case of Andrew Toms v Marilyn Ruberry is an interesting one; it illustrates why you should give careful consideration to the contents of the forfeiture provisions of a lease before taking enforcement action. This case shows the importance of interpreting the right of re-entry and forfeiture clause in read more...

Consideration For Restrictive Covenants

September 24th 2018 | dispute resolution

Many people might be aware of the basic contractual principles, including the rule that you must provide consideration for a contract to be enforceable, however when contracting to restrict a person’s right to work (such as including restrictive covenants in a contract of employment), the situation becomes more complex. What read more...

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