About Property Disputes Law
Lexis+ Property Disputes helps you to understand property disputes practice and procedures and the implications of legislation and case law on this. Clear, concise practice notes have direct links to relevant cases, legislation, guidance and commentary and our daily news feeds and weekly highlights keep you informed of new cases, legislation, and commentary.
Business tendencies
Security of tenure for business tenancies under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 is a key area for a property litigator. Get the research and tools to advise on how security arises and how it’s terminated, daily.
Forfeiture
Guidance covers the procedural and practical considerations prior to and throughout the process of forfeiting a lease. We give detailed guidance, linking deeper commentary, forms, precedents and a wide range of Q&As.
Electronic Communication Code
Guidance to secure rights to install and retain equipment to provide electronic communications services. Code issues, in respect of granting and terminating agreements, frequently arise between landowners and operators.
Property disputes
Understand practice and procedures, the implications of legislation and case law. Our notes have direct links to relevant cases, legislation, guidance and commentary. Get daily news feeds and weekly highlights.
Topics We Cover
Latest Property Disputes News
Construction analysis: Nearly a decade on from Grenfell, thousands of buildings in England still have unsafe cladding. Despite the enactment of the...
This week's edition of Property Disputes weekly highlights includes: High Court decisions on delay under a building safety remediation agreement, the...
The government has published details of the ‘Register your rental property’ service, which forms part of the second phase of Renters’ Rights Act 2025...
The City of London Law Society (CLLS) Land Law Committee has published responses to two Law Commission consultations on commercial leasehold and...
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has announced that a national landlord registration service will launch in England...
Latest Property Disputes Practice Notes
This Practice Note is a horizon scanner tracking key future developments in the field of Property law in England and Wales. It provides details of key...
A landlord can oppose the grant of a new business lease under ground (e) in section 30(1) of the Landlord and Tenant 1954 (LTA 1954). This Practice...
Powers—generalThe statutory powers conferred on an LPA/fixed charge receiver are very limited and so for a receiver to exercise the duties which the...
The Tribunals systemThe Tribunals system is a dispute resolution service which supports, and is part of, the broader court system. It is administered...
This Practice Note explains the rule against derogation from grant and the circumstances in which it applies in relation to leases. It also explains...
Latest Property Disputes Precedents
date [date]Parties1[name of Landlord] [of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [number]) whose registered office is at]...
Date [date]Parties1[name of Licensor] [of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [number]) whose registered office is at OR...
Date [date]Parties1[name of Landlord] [of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [number]) whose registered office is at]...
Date: [date]Parties1[name of Landlord] [of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [number]) whose registered office is at]...
LEASEHOLD REFORM, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT ACT 1993, SECTION 13TENANTS’ INITIAL NOTICE OF CLAIMin connection with the property known as [insert...
Latest Property Disputes Q&As
Featured Property Disputes content
Private nuisance—general principles
Private nuisance—general principlesWhat situations can give rise to a claim?Private nuisance is a ‘violation of real property rights’. It involves...
Occupiers’ liability
Occupiers’ liabilityOccupiers' Liability Act 1957Under the Occupiers' Liability Act 1957 (OLA 1957), an occupier of property owes a common law duty of...
Specific performance of property agreements
Specific performance of property agreementsIf a party to a property agreement fails to comply with its obligations, the other party may wish to apply...
Forfeiture of a lease
Forfeiture of a leaseWhen can a landlord exercise the right to forfeit a lease?Forfeiture is a landlord’s right to bring a lease to an end as a result...
Remedies for breach of restrictive covenants
Remedies for breach of restrictive covenantsThis Practice Note explains when damages for breach of restrictive covenants might be awarded in lieu of...
Notice to complete
Notice to completeThis Practice Note covers what ready, willing and able means and the consequences of serving an invalid notice. A party who is...
Nuisance—what are public and private nuisance claims?
Nuisance—what are public and private nuisance claims?Nuisance claims are recognised in the following way:•private nuisance—substantial interference...
Periodic tenancies
Periodic tenanciesThis Practice Note sets out the nature of a periodic tenancy and the procedure and notice periods for terminating such a tenancy. It...
Rectification—mutual mistake
Rectification—mutual mistakeRectification is an equitable remedy by which the court can correct an error of expression where a written document does...
Quick guide to benefit and burden of covenants on assignment
Quick guide to benefit and burden of covenants on assignmentThe Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 (LT(C)A 1995) provides that any lease granted...
Claims for use and occupation, mesne profits, double rent and double value
Claims for use and occupation, mesne profits, double rent and double valueThis Practice Note provides guidance on claims for ‘use and occupation’ or...
Trespass—remedies
Trespass—remediesThis Practice Note covers the remedies available to landowners who find their property has been unlawfully occupied by a trespasser...
Can a deposit held as stakeholder be released if one set of solicitors is unresponsive or provides spurious reasons for withholding consent?
Return or forfeiture of a deposit
Return or forfeiture of a depositA buyer's right to the return of a deposit and the seller's right to forfeit the deposit in relation to a property...
Surrender by operation of law (implied surrender)
Surrender by operation of lawA surrender by operation of law (or ‘implied surrender’) occurs when the unequivocal conduct of both parties is...
Rectification—unilateral mistake
Rectification—unilateral mistakeThis Practice Note considers the remedy of rectification for unilateral mistake. For rectification for common mistake,...
Quick guide to tenant remedies for landlord’s breach of lease
Quick guide to tenant remedies for landlord’s breach of leaseThis Practice Note gives brief details of the main remedies available to tenants to deal...
Associated legal terms
Nuisance
Nuisance describes activities or conditions that unlawfully interfere with a person’s use or enjoyment of land, or sometimes with public rights, such as rights of way or public health. It is mainly a common law concept, developed through case law across England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, with broadly similar usage but some doctrinal differences.
Private nuisance concerns substantial and unreasonable interference with a person’s land or rights over land (for example, noise, smells, fumes, flooding or structural encroachment). Public nuisance involves conduct that materially affects the reasonable comfort or convenience of a class of the public (for example, obstruction of a highway or large-scale pollution). In some contexts, statutory nuisance is defined and regulated by legislation, particularly environmental and public health statutes, and may sit alongside or replace common law remedies.
Nuisance claims are central in property litigation, environmental law, planning disputes and regulatory enforcement. Remedies may include injunctions, damages, or abatement. Liability may arise from creating, adopting or continuing a nuisance, and issues such as sensitivity of the claimant, locality, planning permission and prescription are often critical in practice.
Section 18
Section 18 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927. This operates as a statutory cap on the amount of damages which a landlord can recover from a tenant at the end of a lease term in respect of dilapidations.
Tolata claim
A Tolata claim is an application to the civil courts, typically in England and Wales, to resolve disputes about the ownership of, or rights over, land or a home where the parties are not married or in a civil partnership. It most often arises in cohabitation disputes about beneficial interests in a family home, orders for sale, or regulation of occupation.
The term derives from the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TOLATA), which governs how trusts of land are created and administered and how disputes are determined, including claims for a declaration of beneficial interest and for an order for sale under sections 14 and 15.
Although widely used by practitioners, “Tolata claim” is not a statutory expression, but convenient shorthand for proceedings under TOLATA.
Usage is specific to England and Wales. In Scotland, analogous disputes are addressed under trust and property principles, and cohabitation claims under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006. Northern Ireland and Ireland do not use TOLATA; similar issues are dealt with through local trust, land and equity rules and, in Ireland, the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Acts.
CONTACT US
