Our Expertise

Members of 4 New Square have considerable expertise in real property, landlord and tenant litigation and related professional negligence claims.

Chambers has had significant involvement in some of the most interesting real property litigation in recent years, from Scott v Southern Pacific (re North East Property Buyers) in the Supreme Court through to Mortgage Express v Lambert in the Court of Appeal. Members of Chambers’ cases are frequently cited in leading texts such as Ruoff & Roper: Registered Conveyancing, Emmet & Farrand on Title, Megarry & Wade: the Law of Real Property and Woodfall: Landlord and Tenant.

Our experience covers everything from the County Court and the Property Chamber (First-Tier Tribunal) through to the Supreme Court, and from junior practitioners instructed in title rectification claims to senior silks arguing mortgage cases in the Supreme Court. A number of members of chambers joined us from Chancery sets and have many years experience in the field.

Whilst we cover all mainstream areas of real property and landlord and tenant, we particularly specialise in:

• Mortgage related work at all levels, including subrogation, liens and equitable charges
• Land registration and conveyancing, including overreaching and priority issues
• Overriding interests
• Equitable interests, including trusts of land, co-ownership and proprietary estoppel
• Title rectification
• Contracts for the sale and development of land, including overage arrangements, options and restrictive covenants
• Breach of covenant, including in the landlord and tenant context
• Statutory regulation of residential, commercial and long leasehold tenancies

We are regularly instructed in property-related professional negligence claims arising out of complex or unusual transactions. In these cases we are able to combine our experience of professional liability claims with our property-related expertise, often providing novel solutions to apparently intractable problems. This has on many occasions included not merely resolution of the negligence dispute, but litigation to resolve the underlying issue without recourse to the indemnity insurance save to the extent of the costs of rectification.