The primary areas of Andy's practice are real property, commercial Landlord and Tenant, and the Electronic Communications Code. She works for institutional landlords like the BA Pension Trustees, Lunar SARL, U&I and BNP Paribas, and for many high-profile tenants including Leon Restaurants, Hermes, Ted Baker and for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
She has trial experience of opposed and unopposed lease renewals under the 1954 Act. She has advised on expert evidence and merits on dilapidations claims on office, industrial and warehousing, and mediated a £3.5m dilapidations claim involving Ford Castle.
Many of Andy’s cases involve site development whether it be specific issues like the enforceability of restrictive covenants, rights to lights claims or site aggregation strategies.
She has conducted expert determinations (both as a party and as an expert) in cases involving the interpretation of lease provisions and disputed overage clauses and has acted as a legal assessor in an arbitration. She has advised the National Trust,
Her work on property damage has included sinkholes and landslips. She ran the first trial in England & Wales involving Japanese knotweed and her subsequent articles on liability have been cited by DEFRA (Risk & Policy Analysts Report, September 2020) and in the latest RICS Guidance “Japanese Knotweed & Residential Property” (1st edition Jan 2022).
Recommended as a leading property junior by both Chambers UK and Legal 500, Andy is noted for her excellent forensic analysis skills and incisive witness handling. One expert building surveyor compared the experience to being “cross-examined by a smiling Doberman”.
Andy came to the Bar after a successful career in industry, latterly as the director of an international manufacturing company. This experience, allied with her first degree in business and finance, means she provides clients with commercially-focused advice.
In her spare time her creative outlet is writing quizzes and compiling puzzles. Her ‘dingbats’ have become a popular Christmas tradition.
Reported Cases:
• Panton & Ors v Brophy & Ors[2019] EWHC 1534 (Ch) – obtained a vesting order for new trustees of the Thames Tradesmen Rowing Club
• London Borough of Camden v Morath & Ors [2019] UKUT 0193 (LC) – instructed via Advocate (BPBU) on behalf of a leaseholder seeking to resist a variation of her lease under s.35 of LTA 1987.
• Evolution (Shinfield) LLP & Ors v BT PLC [2019] UKUT 0127 (LC) – first trial of a claim to determine an agreement under Part 6 of the New Code (led by Brie Stevens-Hoare QC)
• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council v Punj Lloyd Ltd [2018] EWHC 3776 (Admin) – successful respondent to an appeal by way of case stated in respect of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 where the Council relied on a landlord’s specifically enforceable obligation against a guarantor to take an overriding lease to claim £1.2m in rates.
• Red & White Services Ltd v Phil Anslow Ltd [2018] EWHC 1699 (Ch) – endorsement of a costs cap for future incurred costs.
• Williams v Network Rail Infrastructure Limited [2017] UK CC Cardiff (02.02.17) – on proximate nuisance caused by Japanese knotweed.
• Farrar v Leongreen Ltd[2017] EWCA Civ 2211 – on whether a claim for mesne profits and a claim for possession against a trespasser are based on the same cause of action (‘claims in trespass’).
• Spielplatz Ltd v Pearson[2015] EWCA Civ 804 – consideration of annexation of structures following the House of Lords decision in Elitestone v Morris [1977] 1 WLR 687.
• Thandi v Sands [2014] EWHC 2378 (Ch) – dispute over beneficial interest in portfolio of 16 properties following bankruptcy.
• Swan Housing Association Ltd v Gill [2012] EWHC 3129 (QB) - on the county court’s jurisdiction in cases involving adverse possession in light of the Land Registration Act 2002.
• Aksu v LB Enfield [2012] EWCA Civ 60 – renewal tenancy opposed on ground (b).
• Murphy v Wyatt [2011] EWCA Civ 408 – whether the Mobile Homes Act 1983 provided security of tenure retrospectively to a tenancy which did not preclude the siting of a caravan on a 1.7 acre site.
• Chelsea Building Society v Nash [2010] EWCA Civ 1247 – effect of a lender’s settlement with one debtor on their joint liability.
• Chancery Bar Association
• Dilapidations Association
• Property Bar Association
Recent Seminars
Recent seminars Andy has given include:
• PBA conference workshop – Don’t (E)stop me Now
• Northern PLA seminar - Greener Lease Renewals
• Cancer Research seminar – Overage for Probate Lawyers
• PBA conference workshop – COVID & leases: who bears the risk?
• PLA conference seminar – Misrepresentation in Property Transactions
• Smiling Doberman Approach to Expert Witnesses
• Vacant Possession in Practice
• Wayleaves/Telecoms: Property Rights for the Digital Economy
• The Emergence of Proximate Nuisance: Japanese Knotweed
• White Paper Conference – Break Clauses: Meeting the Preconditions
• Liability in Dilapidations
• Fixtures at the End of Term
• From Floods & Fires to Sinkholes: the Current State of the Law in Property Damage
• Tactics in Lease Renewals
• Property Issues in Site Development.
Publications
• Contributor to “Risk & Negligence in Property Transactions” Law Society Legal Handbooks [2018] (edited by John de Waal KC).