Practice Summary

Stephen’s practice centres around three main areas; Landlord and Tenant, Construction Law, and Property Law including related professional negligence claims. He is recognised as a leading specialist in the law of party walls, easements, and rights to light and is noted for being a business-minded advocate, arbitrator and legal author.

Property Disputes

Co-author of the standard textbooks on Party Walls and Rights of Light, he has advised in and presented many important cases in these fields. He appeared in Zissis v Lukomski, March 2006 in which the Court of Appeal clarified both which courts have jurisdiction over appeals from Party Wall awards and the grounds on which such appeals can be made. Stephen also appeared in Regan v Paul Properties Ltd., Court of Appeal, September 2006 which was a review of principles applying to grant of injunction to restrain interference with rights of light. This was the first rights of light case for 20 plus years at the Court of Appeal. In RHJ v Patten decided by the Court of Appeal in March 2008 he appeared in another ground-breaking review by the Court of Appeal of rights of light issues, relating to s.3 of the Prescription Act 1832. In Salvage Wharf Ltd v G & S Brough Ltd (January 2009) Stephen appeared in the Court of Appeal (Led by Ashley Underwood QC) in another case raising the same point, this time arising out of an agreement relating to the Birmingham Cube development.  

In Blake v Reeves, decided by the Court of Appeal in June 2009 he successfully argued that party wall surveyors had no jurisdiction to include in their award costs relating to proposed proceedings for trespass arising from works which required authorisation under the Party Wall Act.  In Balfour Beatty Engineering Services (HY) Ltd v Shepherd Construction Ltd decided in September 2009 the judge described Stephen as “a barrister well known in construction law circles”.  This specialist expertise and his wider experience in Property Law equip him particularly well to handle complex disputes with a Party Wall or easements aspect.

In LMS International Ltd v Styrene Packaging and Insulation Ltd (2005) Stephen successfully argued before the Technology and Construction Court that a claim under Rylands v Fletcher as well as for nuisance and negligence could be established against industrial premises sharing a party wall with the claimants where large quantities of inflammable polystyrene were stored and processed. He has also appeared in many significant cases involving diverse aspects of property and landlord and tenant law. In Shrewsbury v Adam (2005) for example he argued in the Court of Appeal that a conveyance included a right of way over land which was to be developed by the vendor.

Arbitration

As a qualified and chartered arbitrator Stephen is regularly appointed as an arbitrator in disputes in the construction, property and professional services fields. He also accepts appointments to act as adjudicator under the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. Stephen is also increasingly involved in International Arbitration. Fluent in French, highly competent in Italian and competent in German, Stephen is the current chairman of the London Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of the London Court of International Arbitration. He acted as a mediator in the 3rd International Commercial Mediation Competition organized by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris from 15th-18th February 2008 and has in the last year presented papers on Property Arbitration and Choice of Forum at conferences. His article on legal challenges in rent review arbitrations was published in Arbitration in August 2009. He will present a paper at the Dispute Board Federation Winter Symposium in Istanbul in November 2009.