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Commercial property occupiers who are dissatisfied with the valuation put on their premises for business rates purposes can do a great deal more than just grin and bear it. In a case on point, the tenant of a waste transfer station succeeded in slashing its...
A commercial property owner who for years shelled out for drainage bills that it was never obliged to pay must be reimbursed every penny. That was the effect of an important High Court ruling in which utility companies were found to have been unjustly...
Official decision-makers are often accused of acting with closed minds. However, as a Court of Appeal ruling in a planning case made plain , there is a great difference between unlawful predetermination and a legitimate pause for thought. The case...
Many commercial leases appear to confer on landlords a wide and unilateral power to calculate and demand payment of service charges. An important Supreme Court ruling , however, indicates that they may not enjoy quite such a whip hand in future. A...
Community open spaces and leisure facilities are heavily protected by planning law. However, as a High Court ruling showed, even they must sometimes make way for strategic developments that are considered to serve the wider public interest. The case...
5G mobile phone masts are sprouting up all over the country and most people would agree that there is a real need for them. However, as a High Court ruling showed, they are not wholly exempt from planning rules and they cannot be located just anywhere. A...
The importance that planning policy gives to the preservation of heritage assets was underlined by a High Court case in which planning consent for a controversial high-rise apartment block in an iconic riverside location was overturned. The relevant site...
Waste dumping scars the landscape but it can be very hard to identify perpetrators, who commonly take steps to cover their tracks. In one case, however, a judge was able to pinpoint those responsible for depositing close to 20 tonnes of waste in a disused...
It is increasingly commonplace for owners of vacant commercial buildings to permit their occupation by so-called 'property guardians' with a view to protecting them from squatters and vandals. As an Upper Tribunal (UT) ruling showed , however, such...
Cinema operators who were forced to close during COVID-19 lockdowns have failed to convince the Court of Appeal that they should be relieved of the obligation to pay rent . In a guideline ruling, the Court found that it was the tenants, not the landlords,...
