Charles Holland

Regulatory and licensing; landlord and tenant; real property; Chancery and commercial; company partnership; social housing; professional negligence and insolvency.

Charles has a busy and well-established chancery/commercial practice, with a particular emphasis on business and property matters. He aims to provide pragmatic, business-focused resolutions to disputes, with advice delivered promptly in user-friendly terms. 

Charles is also well known nationally as a specialist licensing advocate and has acted in a large number of licensing applications relating to a wide range of venues and events, including high profile matters such as  the Newcastle Carling Academy, the Birmingham Carling Academy, Darlington FC's stadium, the York Barbican Centre, the Sage Gateshead international music centre and the "HiFi North" festival.

He has also had many years’ experience in lap dancing applications, now regulated as sexual entertainment venues. His betting and gaming practice concerns betting shops (multiples and independents), amusement arcades, bingo, casinos and online gaming. He frequently appears in firearms matters. He also deals with the licensing of scrap metal dealers.

Charles has a very active taxi licensing practice representing both operators and local authorities, and has advised statutory bodies in relation to matters as diverse as the use of former fire engines for mobile hen parties to the processing of applications for drivers’ licenses from non-UK applicants unable to furnish Criminal Records Bureau checks. His licensing practice involves a significant amount of work in the Administrative Court, where Charles also conducts public law Judicial Review cases largely concerning local authorities.

Licensing

Pubs, clubs, music venues, festivals, tableside dancing clubs, hotels, sports stadia, betting, gaming and amusement centres, casinos, internet gaming, sex shops, sex cinemas, sexual entertainment venues, firearms (shotgun appeals in particular), buses, taxis, taxi drivers (revocations in particular), houses in multiple occupation, scrap metal dealers. In addition, policies, CRB checks, Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Human Rights Act, Judicial Review and enforcement proceedings. Represents the trade, local authorities and the police.

Landlord & Tenant

Commercial and residential landlord and tenant, lease renewals. dilapidations, tied leases and licensed premises.

Real property

Conveyancing and related land disputes including easements, covenants and boundary disputes, fairs and markets, village greens, caravan sites. Particular emphasis on licensed/regulated properties.

Chancery/Commercial

Contentious Probate, Inheritance Act claims, guarantees, mortgages, construction disputes, contract disputes, civil fraud, solicitors' disputes, sport and businesses. Particular emphasis on licensed/leisure sector.

Company partnership

Share sale agreements, warranty claims, directors' disqualification, shareholder disputes, fiduciary duties.

Social Housing

Possession claims, anti-social behaviour injunctions, leasehold valuation, tribunal applications. Acting for local authorities and other social landlords.

Professional negligence

Claims involving solicitors, architects, engineers, surveyors, estate agents. Particular emphasis on professional negligence claims in the licensing field.

Insolvency

Corporate and personal.

APPOINTMENTS

Junior Counsel to the Crown (Provincial Panel) (2000-2007)

MEMBERSHIPS North Eastern Circuit Institute of Licensing Chancery Bar Association LECTURES & SEMINARS

Charles is a Workshop leader on the Bar Vocational Course at Northumbria University. He regularly presents seminars to local authority clients on licensing and social housing matters.

EDUCATION Inns of Court School of Law Diploma in Advocacy (National Institute of Trial Advocacy) University of Nottingham: LL.B.

University of Nottingham (LLB); Diploma in Advocacy (National Institute of Trial Advocacy); Inns of Court School of Law.