Peter Petts

Introduction & Contact details

Peter regularly accepts all levels court and tribunal instructions, predominantly in the fields of landlord and tenant, and real property.  He has wide-ranging trial and appellate experience in the Court of Appeal, High Court, County Court, Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber), Leasehold Valuation Tribunal and before the Adjudicator to HM Land Registry.

In addition to his general drafting and advisory work, which is held in high regard, Peter advises on the drafting of leases and commercial agreements.

Peter’s clients particularly appreciate the clarity and commercial reality of his advice, and he regularly accepts licensed access work.

Qualifications

• LLB (Hons)(Lond)

Scholarships and Awards

• Inner Temple Bursary

• Duke of Edinburgh Scholarship 

Professional Associations

• Committee member of the Property Bar Association (PBA)
• Chancery Bar Association (ChBA)
• Professional Negligence Bar Association (PNBA)
• Bar Pro Bono Panel Member

Tel: 020 7242 2523 (Switchboard)
Fax: 020 7691 1234
Email: peter.petts@hardwicke.co.uk

Landlord & Tenant

Landlord & Tenant – Commercial

Peter’s expertise covers a wide range of commercial landlord and tenant work, including: rent reviews; renewal of business tenancies; service charges; dilapidations; compensation for improvements; assignment; forfeiture and relief; other breaches of covenants, and interpretation and enforceability of covenants.

He is also sought after for his unparalleled expertise in respect to the leases of licensed premises and their complex legal, commercial and social nuances.

Recent work:

• Licensed premises rent reviews and lease renewals
• Land Registry adjudication and subsequent successful appeal concerning the lawfulness of peaceable reentry
• Validity of notices served on former tenants and guarantors under s. 17 of Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995, and their application to disrepair claims
• Fiercely contested forfeiture trial with a counterclaim of fraudulent misrepresentation
• Landlord’s proceedings to enforce tenant’s covenants in respect of noise nuisance
• Admiral Taverns (Cygnet) Ltd v Daly (CA) [2009] 4 All ER [Application of restriction on the court’s power to delay possession (s. 89 of the Housing Act 1980) to the appellate courts

Landlord & Tenant – Residential

Peter’s residential landlord and tenant practice covers contractual, Housing Act and Rent Act tenancies, as well as long leases.

Due to the ever-expanding jurisdiction of the Residential Property Tribunal Service, Peter’s vast experience of the LVT and its procedures is of great value to clients.

Recent work:

• Advising a landlord on numerous leases of some 900 properties, including the cost, provision and recovery of privately provided utilities and the impact of the statutory service charge regime
• The recovery of the landlord’s LVT costs as administration charges under the lease
• Contested Rent Act possession claims founded on cessation of occupation as a resident, and nuisance or annoyance, waste and neglect
• Landlord’s licence to alter and recovery of the landlord’s costs
• Jackson v JH Watson Property Investment Ltd (2008) 11 EG 94; (2008) 2 EG 147 (CS); (2008) NPC 1.  [Neighbouring landlord not liable to tenant for nuisance existing prior to the granting of the lease: caveat lessor]

Land & Real Property

Peter’s real property experience includes: conveyancing and land registration; party wall disputes; easements and covenants; co-ownership, trusts and proprietary estoppel; disputed boundaries and adverse possession; public and private nuisance, and mortgages and charges.

Recent work:

• Boundary dispute involving overriding interests
• Advising on the variation and discharge of freehold restrictive covenants
• Advising a vendor on the enforceability of a multi-million pound contract for with various conditions precedent and longstops
• Opposing a third party freezing injunction on the proceeds of sale of a property in ancillary relief proceedings
• Successful nuisance/Rylands v Fletcher claim against a local authority, arising from landfill gases
• Defending trust of land proceedings instigated by a purported legal advisor.

Professional Negligence

Peter undertakes all property related professional negligence work.

Recent work:

• Managing agent’s negligence in complying with the statutory residential service charge regime
• The negligence of a surveyor who held himself out as having expertise in medieval properties
• Advising and managing the clients’ expectations as to the level of damages, where the Defendant surveyor had admitted liability