Landmark Chambers

“… has an encyclopaedic knowledge of property law and rolls up his sleeves and gets stuck into the detail. Definitely my go to barrister if I want the right answer” - Legal 500.

Nic Taggart has been acknowledged by both Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 as a top-tier “leading junior” barrister in real estate litigation for over 18 years. Principally a specialist in commercial real estate law, Nic also likes getting involved in the more recherché areas.

Nic deals with just about every aspect of commercial real estate, with an emphasis on commercial landlord and tenant work, such as dilapidations, rent reviews and lease renewals under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. Being, at heart, an anarchist, Nic has undertaken many cases under “Ground (f)” of the 1954 Act (including the leading case of S Franses v. The Cavendish Hotel (London) and disposed of a few guarantees under the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 (including the leading case of K/S Victoria Street v. House of Fraser).

Nic also has experience and expertise in the usual land law disputes, involving restrictive covenants, easements (including rights of light), boundary disputes, land registration matters, including adverse possession, overage and development disputes, trespass and nuisance claims. Nic also has a particular specialisation in respect of conveyancing issues, arising before or after the transaction. He enjoys getting stuck into some more recherché aspects of real estate, such as mines and minerals, manorial and customary rights, utility wayleaves and property aspects of infrastructure provision, riparian rights, the real estate aspects of canals and harbours, and drainage. He also has experience and expertise in disputes involving property-related professional negligence, acting for claimants and insurers.

Nic is qualified and experienced as an arbitrator and as a legal assessor, but lacks the disposition to be a mediator.

For laughs, he is an editor of Hill & Redman’s Law of Landlord and Tenant (contributing to the chapters on termination, possession and business tenancies), a member of the editorial boards of both The Conveyancer and Property Lawyer and The Journal of Building Survey, Appraisal & Valuation, and a past member of both The Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee and the RICS Dilapidations Steering Group. He is a regular speaker at Property Litigation Association and RICS events and provides in-house training for a number of solicitors firms. He appreciates that he needs to get out more.

Away from the law, Nic is a devotee of proper relaxation. His interests include photography, reading military histories, listening to music not popular since the 1980s and doggedly supporting the Williams F1 team.

• University College London (LLB) • Wadham College, Oxford (BCL)

Memberships 

• Nic has been a member of the Law Society’s Conveyancing and Land Law Committee and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ Dilapidations Forum Steering Group.

• He is a member of the editorial boards of The Conveyancer and Property Lawyer and of The Journal of Building Survey, Appraisal and Valuation

• Chancery Bar Association

• Property Bar Association

• Institute of Chartered Arbitrators