Katrina Yates

Call: 2006

Katrina is an outstanding property barrister, who specialises in real property and commercial landlord and tenant litigation and is highly ranked as a leading junior in the legal directories.

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Property

Planning

Property

Katrina has a busy property litigation practice and is particularly strong on disputes involving land registration, commercial landlord and tenant, and planning law issues that arise in the real estate context.

Her practice encompasses:

  • Development work (including overage, options, and promotion agreements)
  • Commercial landlord and tenant (including forfeiture, landlord’s consents, dilapidations, rent review, and disputes under the 1954 Act)
  • Land registration (including alteration, rectification, indemnity and judicial review)
  • Sale and purchase disputes (including misrepresentation, forfeiture of deposits, and disputes over vacant possession)
  • Rectification of contracts and deeds
  • Adverse possession and boundary disputes
  • Easements
  • Restrictive covenants
  • Nuisance
  • Trusts of Land
  • Property-related professional negligence.

Katrina has significant experience acting in commercial disputes for large institutional clients, including property investors, developers, and household name retailers. With a background of experience in complementary areas of planning law, she is the counsel of choice for development work, or any property litigation case which has a planning law element.

Since 2020, she has also been appointed to the prestigious Attorney-General’s A Panel of Junior Counsel. In that capacity, she regularly advises central government departments on property issues of public importance and is standing counsel to the Chief Land Registrar.    

During her career at Landmark, Katrina has developed extensive breadth and depth of written and oral advocacy experience in the Senior Courts, including in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, the High Court, as well in the First-tier Tribunal, the Upper Tribunal, and the County Court.  Her varied experiences have also previously taken her into the magistrates’ courts, the Crown Court, and public inquiries, from which she has developed agility and clarity as an advocate.

Recent and notable appearances include:

  • Bay Dining Ltd v BNP Paribas Depositary Services Ltd (22 March 2023): successfully acted for BNP Paribas in defence of an application for relief from forfeiture of a commercial lease.
  • Campbell v Chief Land Registrar [2022] EWHC 200 (ChD), before HH Judge Hodge KC: struck out multiple unmeritorious claims which sought to contend that various mortgages were invalid for failure to be executed by the lender as well as the borrower, based on a misapprehension of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989, s.2.     Also obtained an extended civil restraint order against one litigant, which led to the making of a general civil restraint order on 2 March 2023 by Edwin Johnson J.
  • Littler v Linden Ltd (29 March 2022): defended a developer against a claim for an injunction, which sought the removal and relocation of a foul drainage system.
  • Billings & Billings v Coyde Construction Ltd (2021): trial as to the validity and construction of an easement, which included a challenge to whether the easement had been properly registered so as to bind successors in title.
  • R (HCP Hendon Ltd) v Chief Land Registrar [2020] EWHC 1278 (Admin), before Martin Spencer J: successfully defended the Registrar’s decision to register a new lease as a concurrent lease, and in so doing clarified the law on the manner in which the Property Register to leasehold title can be relied on for the purpose of establishing the scope of the demise.
  • Coventry Parkside Development Ltd v Uninn Parkside Development Ltd (Claim No. PT-2020-000075): acted for the defendant in an application for an injunction to restrain an airspace trespass caused by a crane oversailing an adjacent development site.
  • Halfords Ltd v Turret Property Investments Ltd (County Court at Sheffield, Claim No. C01BS690): successfully represented Halfords at a trial of its business lease renewal claim, which included a rarely fought dispute as to the valuation of the new rent.
  • Antoine v Barclays Bank UK Plc & Chief Land Registrar [2018] EWCA Civ 2846 [2018] EWHC 395 (Ch): successfully defended the Chief Land Registrar in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal in relation to a claim for rectification of the registrar, following the setting aside of a court order that had been obtained by fraud.  
  • R (Best) v Chief Land Registrar [2016] QB 23 (CA): with Jonathan Karas KC, acted for the Registrar in this landmark Court of Appeal case testing the novel question of whether an adverse possession application is valid, where the possession on which the applicant relies to establish his claim constitutes the criminal offence of squatting in a residential building, under s. 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

Other experience:

Katrina sat on the University of Bristol’s Law School Advisory Board between 2013 and 2016 and is a guest LLB land law lecturer. She is a regular contributor to the Civil Court Service (the “Brown Book”) and the Civil Court Practice (the “Green Book”).

When she is not working at the law, Katrina is a keen singer and violinist who performs whenever she has the chance. She also enjoys learning languages and travelling, most recently taking-up surfing in Portugal and Morocco.

Planning

Katrina has a wide range of experience in planning law and continues to specialise in cases involving highly technical issues, particularly those relating to the Health and Safety Executive. Her expertise includes:

  • Advising and representing claimants, local authorities and the Secretary of State in judicial reviews and statutory challenges in the High Court, particularly under sections 288 and 289 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (the “Act”), or where planning issues arise collaterally in property cases or other civil proceedings.
  • Appearing at public hearings and inquiries, including as to enforcement action, care homes, housing land supply, gypsy pitches, and health and safety issues

Notable cases include

  • Re: Thornton Science Park (2019): public inquiry with David Forsdick KC, in which I successfully advised and represented the Health and Safety Executive on the technical evidence necessary to justify its objection to a proposal to introduce a university facility adjacent to the Stanlow Oil Refinery, based modelling and demonstrating the unacceptable residual risk posed to the surrounding populations.
  • Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government v Carroll; Lisle-Mainwaring v Carroll [2018] JPL 194 (CA), before: Lindblom, Flaux and McFarlane LJJ; against: Richard Harwood KC and Paul Brown KC. successfully acted for the Secretary of State, the second appellant, defending a challenge to the grant of planning permission for the change of use from B8 to C3 to the owner/developer of the famous red and white striped house in Kensington. The Court dismissed the neighbour’s challenge and affirmed the principles of R (Mount Cook Land Limited) v Westminster City Council [2003] EWCA Civ 1346 in relation to the materiality of alternative potential uses of a site. Paul Brown KC represented the first appellant. For a digest of the case, please click here. For an article in The Times newspaper, click here.
  • Thorpe-Smith v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2017] EWHC 356 (Admin): successfully defended the Secretary of State in this challenge under s. 288, which concerned a site in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and was based on the inspector’s alleged material unfairness against the appellant and his treatment of NPPF/14. The case is digested at [2017] JPL 74.
  • Re: Silvertown Tunnel (2016 – 2017): represented the Health and Safety Executive at the DCO examination. The Development Consent Order may be accessed here.
  • Re: Burford Road, Witney, Oxfordshire (2016): s. 78 appeal in relation to a proposed housing development of 270 dwellings in the vicinity of a liquefied petroleum gas plant. Represented the Health and Safety Executive at a 2 week inquiry, whose advice the inspector accepted in her report and the Secretary of State accepted in his decision.

Specialisms

Boundary and Ownership Disputes

Commercial Landlord and Tenant

Easements and Profits a Prendre

Land Registration and Adverse Possession

"
Witheringly bright, extremely determined, and very good on her feet... Katrina is absolutely ruthless in cross-examination and incredibly well prepared, which produces devastating results… [she is] great to work with… brilliant, incredibly practical, and very responsive."

Chambers and Partners

Chambers Top Ranked UK Bar 2024 Uk leading juniors 2024

Qualifications and achievements

Qualifications

Academic

  • BA (Hons) English: First Class, Hertford College, Oxford (2003)
  • MA (Hons) Law: Distinction, University of Bristol (2005) - Two year fast-track LLB, with postgraduate research

Professional

  • Bar Vocational Course: Outstanding, BPP Professional Education Law School (2006) - Katrina was graded Outstanding in an exceptional 10 out of 13 papers, and was the highest scoring BPP student of Lincoln’s Inn in her year
  • Pupillage at Landmark Chambers (2006 – 2007)

Scholarships

Lincoln’s Inn Scholarships

  • Sir Robert Megarry
  • Lord Denning
  • Lord Bowen
  • Hardwicke Entrance Award

Pegasus Scholarship

  • Secondment to Solicitor-General of New Zealand (September – December 2011)

Memberships

Panels

Katrina is appointed to the Attorney General’s A Panel of Junior Counsel (2020 to date)

Previous panels include:

  • Attorney-General’s B Panel of Counsel (2015 – 2020)
  • Attorney-General’s C Panel of Counsel (2012 – 2015)

Associations

  • Chancery Bar Association
  • Property Bar Association

Publications

Recommendations

Practice Managers

Contact our friendly and helpful Practice Managers for more information about our barristers and services or to make an enquiry.

Mark Ball new

Mark Ball

Practice Director

020 7421 1308

Harry Feldman

Harry Feldman

Practice Manager

020 7421 2485

Connor Mc Gilly new

Connor McGilly

Practice Manager

020 7421 1304

Ruby Sims new

Ruby Sims

Assistant Practice Manager

020 7421 1337

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