Jonathan Titmuss

Introduction & Contact details

Jonathan has recently joined Hardwicke from 42 Bedford Row where he had been a member since 2003, having completed pupillage at Enterprise Chambers and New Square Chambers.

Jonathan is a member of Hardwicke’s Commercial and Property & Private Client Divisions.

Jonathan undertakes many areas of work within those fields, building on the specialist and established practice brought with him to Hardwicke.  He specialises in insolvency (both individual and corporate and including restructuring and recovery), licensed property work and residential landlord and tenant.  He has developed a strong practice both as adviser and advocate and has experience of appearing in all forums relating to his areas of expertise including the Court of Appeal.  Jonathan also represents parties in alternative dispute resolutions, particularly mediations.

Jonathan accepts instructions from professionals including surveyors under the Bar Council’s Licensed Access scheme and will also consider working under conditional fee agreements, particularly in his area of expertise, insolvency.

Qualifications

• BA (Hons) (UCL) (Geography) Upper Second Class
• Accredited advocacy tutor for Lincoln’s Inn
• Registered pupil supervisor and Mentee on the pupillage foundation scheme

Professional Associations

• Property Bar Association
• Chancery Bar Association

T:  020 7242 2523 (switchboard)
F:  020 7691 1234
E:  jonathan.titmuss@hardwicke.co.uk

Insolvency

Jonathan regularly represents all relevant parties in this specialist field of work including financially distressed individuals and companies, office holders in personal and corporate insolvency and creditors.  Work in this area forms the rump of Jonathan’s practice. Within this area he also has had wide experience of corporate restructuring particularly advising on and acting in matters relating to administrations.  Jonathan regularly appears in all relevant forums from the County Court, to the Bankruptcy Court and the High Court.

Particularly in this area Jonathan is well regarded for the breadth of knowledge and common sense commercial advice he can bring to matters upon which he is instructed, having a background in broader commercial and property disputes before specialising in insolvency.

Recent Work

• Obtaining freezing injunctions against directors guilty of misfeasance and / or fraudulent trading at the instigation of the principal creditor
• Obtaining interim injunctions to prevent the presentation or advertisement of winding up petitions
• Contested applications for administration orders, most recently an application by a bank to place a property development finance house into administration
• Advising the liquidator on contingent gifts made to the company before liquidation
• Application against a Trustee to admit a family member as creditor to an estate as a consequence of a familial loan
• Representing a trustee in an application to defer the date of automatic discharge where the bankrupt had failed to disclose significant assets held outside the jurisdiction
• Trustee remuneration disputes
• Transfer at undervalue and preference claims
• Acting for both directors and companies in the recovery of loan accounts following liquidation
• Advising a family of a bankrupt as to the effect of a life interest granted to mother on possession proceedings brought by the Trustee
• All ordinary applications in bankruptcy and winding up such as applications to set aside statutory demands, contested bankruptcy hearings, contested winding up petitions, orders for sale and annulments (particularly annulments co-extensive with re-mortgages)

Cases

Dias v Havering London Borough Council [2011] EWHC 172 Ch concerning the extent to which the Court should go behind a liability order of the Magistrates Court regarding non-domestic rates.

Trusts of Land

Most of Jonathan’s work in this field arises from disputes over the beneficial interests in land where an insolvency procedure has intervened and recovery of the land is sought for the benefit of creditors.

Landlord & Tenant

Jonathan acts for a wide range of clients in relation to landlord and tenant matters, receiving a high volume of instructions from insolvency practitioners to provide advice on landlord and tenant matters arising within the context of insolvency procedures.

Jonathan has a particular interest in proceedings relating to tenancies of licensed premises and is regularly instructed by a number of the large chains and breweries in that regard.

Jonathan also undertakes service charge work and forfeiture proceedings arising from that, and is happy to accept instructions under the Bar Council’s Licensed Access scheme.

Recent Work

• Advising a liquidator on a large number of issues arising from the takeover of a property development where the majority of the development was let on assured shorthold tenancies that were defective and / or had issues in regard to the deposits
• Forfeiture proceedings in regard to licensed premises
• The liability of a head landlord in regard to assured shorthold tenancies granted by his sub-tenant
• Service charge disputes and particularly forfeiture proceedings arising out of those disputes
• Representing a management company at LVT in regard to estate charges
• Advising a liquidator on possession proceedings necessary to recover premises for creditors
• Advising a brewery over proceedings for possession against occupiers of residential premises above licensed premises where the licensee was said to have surrendered and new management had been put in place

Cases

Continental Property Ventures v White and White (2006) 16 EG 148

Land & Real Property

Jonathan is instructed on a wide range of land and real property disputes, including boundaries, easements, life interests and beneficial interests in property.  Jonathan is frequently instructed where those disputes arise in the context of insolvency proceedings or recovery proceedings.

Recent Work

• Advising and settling at mediation a claim for an account as between partners in a business (long dissolved) where the business premises remained held in joint names but one partner had been excluded for over 20 years
• Representing a property developer to enforce rights of way over a parcel of land leading to a development site.  The parcel of land over which the right existed remained owned by the previous owner of the development plot which had been repossessed
• Advising an administrator upon his appointment over a property development finance house.  Issues included possession proceedings in regard to unpaid mortgages, enforcement of guarantees in regard to mortgage shortfalls against directors and removal of receivers already in post
• Advising an administrator on issues arising from the ownership of a football club where the ground was to be sold for redevelopment
  Obtaining interim injunctions to protect rights arising from interests in land
  Advising on the recovery of 168 garages under a block of flats, squatted whilst the block was being redeveloped preventing work continuing
  Contested order for sale hearings following charging orders granted pursuant to the CPR

Cases

Osuji v Newlyn and Holmes [2011] EWCA Civ 476 concerning the interpretation of CPR 38.6 arising in the context of proceedings against bailiffs who had sought to recover property from a solicitor in satisfaction of debts arising from liability orders for non-domestic rates.

Commercial

Jonathan is regularly instructed on a wide range of general commercial matters and business disputes, instructed on behalf of both individuals and large corporates, and has appeared in all forums from the County Court to the Court of Appeal.  Jonathan will consider acting on the basis of conditional fee agreements in commercial disputes.

Recent Work

• Trial relating to damages arising from the defective construction of a roadway
• Advising a scaffolding company over the wrongful termination of a contract for the supply of scaffold to a train company for overnight works
• Advising a manufacturer of office interiors over the recovery of debts arising from the supply of goods where the matter was defended on the basis of damages arising from the failure to supply goods on time and out of sequence
• Advising a major creditor in regard to pursuing directors of a company through indemnities provided to the liquidator

Cases

Osuji v Newlyn and Holmes [2011] EWCA Civ 476 concerning the interpretation of CPR 38.6 arising in the context of proceedings against bailiffs who had sought to recover property from a solicitor in satisfaction of debts arising from liability orders for non-domestic rates.

Utilities

Jonathan has a longstanding relationship with water supply utility companies and advises and acts for them on a wide range of matters from the recovery of water charges to recovering the costs of network damage against individuals and other utility companies.