Property Dispute Solicitors

We act in commercial lease disputes, rent and service charge disputes, lease renewal, dilapidations and forfeiture, land and boundary disputes, possession claims against occupiers, disputes about ownership and shares in property, and disputes arising from failed sales, options and development agreements. Where a dispute has its own dedicated page on this site, you will find the detail there, and where it does not, the approach on this page applies to it.

Yes. Real estate is the American term for what English law calls real property, so real estate disputes, real estate litigation and a real estate dispute lawyer correspond to property disputes, property litigation and a property litigation solicitor in England and Wales. The law applied here is the law of England and Wales, whichever vocabulary you arrived with.

Proceedings follow the Civil Procedure Rules. The dispute is set out in pre action correspondence, and if it does not resolve, the claim is issued in the appropriate court or tribunal, followed by a defence, disclosure of documents, witness and expert evidence, and trial. The court manages the timetable and encourages settlement throughout, and costs generally follow the result. Most property disputes settle before trial, usually once the documents and expert evidence have made the likely outcome visible to both sides.

Yes, and the courts expect it to be attempted: a party that unreasonably refuses mediation risks costs penalties even if it wins. Property mediations commonly settle in a single day, and the settlement can be shaped commercially, from revised lease terms to staged payments, boundary agreements recorded by deed, or an agreed sale. Because the parties are often neighbours or bound to each other by a lease for years to come, a mediated outcome frequently serves both sides better than a judgment.

It depends on their status. A former tenant, a licensee whose licence has ended and an unauthorised occupier are each removed by different procedures, and using the wrong one, or taking matters into your own hands, can create liability of its own. Possession claims for commercial premises are generally issued in the County Court, with an accelerated procedure available against trespassers. The first step is establishing what right, if any, the occupier has, because that decides the route and the speed.

A negotiated settlement can be reached in weeks, and mediations are usually arranged within a couple of months of the dispute crystallising. Issued proceedings typically take a year or more to reach trial, with possession claims against trespassers substantially quicker. The commercial pressure of the property itself, rent falling due, a sale waiting, a development stalled, usually sets the real timetable, and the strategy should be built around it.

We quote fixed fees for every stage, agreed before any work starts, at prices around 30% cheaper than a standard law firm, from the initial review of the title and documents through to mediation or trial. In court proceedings the general rule is that the losing party contributes to the winning party’s costs, but recovery is discretionary and rarely complete. We always advise on realistic cost recovery prospects before you commit to any course of action.