David Smith, Solicitor
The Negotiator - 30 November 2011
The chancellor’s Autumn Statement told us much of what we already know, which is essentially small stuff as far as the housing market goes...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Law Gazette - 10 March 2011
The Law Society has been coordinating responses from members of its relevant committees (planning, conveyancing and housing) to large parts of the Localism Bill. This is the bill that proposes to bring in far-reaching plans to devolve power to the local community to build on the government’s idea of the ‘Big Society’...

Debra Wilson, Partner
As Autumn beckons, John Keats' words (To Autumn, 1820) "Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness..." are lovely to contemplate, except perhaps where this involves neglected, urban trees...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Law Gazette - July 2010
In his first speech as housing minister, Grant Shapps announced that the government was scrapping recommendations to further regulate the private rented sector. He said further regulation would ‘create burdensome red tape and bureaucracy’ for good landlords...

Ian Mitchell, Partner
Imagine a large house purchased circa 1960. 10 years later, the owner sells the upstairs part of the house by splitting the property into two flats. He does this by granting a 99 year lease of the upstairs...

Charlotte Collins, Solicitor
On 23 June 2010 the Supreme Court handed down judgment in the case of Austin v London Borough of Southwark an appeal heard by a panel of five Law Lords on 21 and 22 April 2010. The Appellant Mr Barry Austin, is the brother of the late Alan Austin who was the original tenant of a one bedroom flat on the Aylesbury estate in Southwark...

Andrew Brookes, Partner
We successfully acted for the respondent in the recent mortgage recovery case of Vedalease Ltd v Cascabel Investments Ltd...

Mike Hansom, Solicitor
The disruption of building work in your home is stressful and upsetting even for relatively small projects. Ordinarily people are glad to see the back of builders, but when the work is left half finished because of a dispute, being left to stew in the rubble is maddening...

David Marshall, Partner
We all know that buying and selling a home can be a fraught experience, one that leaves many vowing never to do it again. Of course, however, in time most come back to the market and last year alone there were over 1.2m residential property transactions in England and Wales...

Rebecca Jones and Nicholas Ioannou, Solicitors
Getting to grips with the Land Registry and understanding its procedure is a very important part of family law. In order to get the most from the Land Registry and the new rules that have come into force since the Land Registration Act 2002, it is vital to have a general understanding and overview of the basic principles of law involved and also which forms we should be using...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Major changes have been occurring to the landscape of business tenancy work. Since 15 October 2001, the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) invaded the field with the coming into force of Part 56 and Practice Directions (PD)...

Debra Wilson, Partner
Cohabitees (couples who live together who are not married) are a reflection of the diverse family trends that have evolved over the last few decades. Divorce rates have increased, with a corresponding decrease in the number of marriages contributing to greater incidences of cohabitation...

Timothy Waitt, Solicitor 
Journal of Housing Law - July 2008
Introduction In July 1998 the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the important disrepair case of Wallace v Manchester.¹ The judgment was seen as a watershed, laying to rest...

Stephen Whitaker, Head of Property Department
Recently, the Conveyancing Department at Streatham has had a couple of approaches for advice on “Landbanking” – buying land without planning permission attached. The advertising blurb and the...