There are many roles that commercial property solicitors undertake, from settling land disputes, helping with the purchase or sale of property and helping to navigate the often complex world of property law.
Part of the reason why it is so complex is that the law that the property market abides by is based not only on the legislation, acts and statutory instruments but also on the results of legal precedent.
These cases often intersect in strange ways to the point that somewhat unusual circumstances several centuries ago are still a part of legal interpretation to this very day.
Here are some examples.
Bernstein of Leigh (Baron) v Skyviews And General
Sidney Bernstein, then the chairman of Granada Television, sued an early aerial photography company for trespassing over his land, under the old principle of the ad coelum doctrine, which was interpreted to mean that whenever someone owned land, it was theirs up to the heavens and down to the centre of the Earth.
Baron Bernstein sued the photography company, Skyviews and General, but lost the case and in doing so highlighted the limitations of the ad coelum doctrine to the height that is necessary for the ordinary use and enjoyment of the land and any buildings on it.
The reason for the limitation is that the doctrine was not written with aircraft in mind, and had he won the case, the precedent could have meant that any flight or even any satellite orbit could technically be considered trespassing.
Street v Mountford
A case that established a standard test for the presence of a property lease and disproved the notion that one can simply state and make a tenant sign an agreement stating the contrary to this, Street v Mountford was centred around whether a “licence agreement” was actually a lease or not.
It held that because there was exclusive possession, certainty to the lease term and rent to pay, it was a lease and Mrs Mountford had the legal protections associated with the Rent Act 1977 as a result.