Autumn Newsletter 2025

October 15, 2025

Welcome to the autumn 2025 edition of Tanfield Chambers’ newsletter.

News

Tanfield continues to maintain its strong market position and was again placed in Tier 2 for property litigation in the Legal 500 UK Bar Directory. Our members have also been ranked in three other practice areas, namely insolvency, commercial litigation and professional negligence. Thank you to all our clients for taking part in the research process and giving feedback.

We are also delighted to announce that Philip Rainey KC won Property Silk of the Year at this year’s Legal 500 Awards.

Dovar & Sawtell on The Building Safety Act will be available to purchase from Sweet & Maxwell on 31 October 2025. The book can be pre-ordered here. Daniel Dovar has managed a team of Tanfield members who have provided the property law related chapters of this important new volume.

We are also involved in the new edition of the Building Safety Act: a guide for property lawyers, published by The Law Society which is being edited by Hugh Rowan.

Recent events

BSA Day III Conference chaired by Andrew Butler KC. We were so pleased to see so many of our clients and contacts at our sold out BSA Day III Conference on 25 September 2025, chaired by Andrew Butler KC ably assisted by Lorenzo Leoni. The conference explored all things Building Safety Act 2022, including practical guidance with FTT procedure, Remediation Contribution Orders following the Court of Appeal judgment in Triathlon, retrospectivity and much, much more. If you would like to purchase a copy of the slides for £50 + VAT, please contact Lydia Benaicha.

Robyn Cunningham and Annie Higgo gave a case update on restrictive covenants seminar to the PLA South Coast on 7 October 2025. Thank you to all who attended this popular event and, if you missed this, they will soon be giving a similar seminar for the PLA Midlands.

Chambers continues to grow and in the last few days, we have welcomed all three of our pupils, Sami Allan, Julian Torres and Cameron Neilson as tenants. We are also pleased to announce the arrival of two pupils, namely Dara Foody and Rhys Duncan.

Recent cases

Mark Loveday, James Fieldsend and Robyn Cunningham have all appeared in the landmark judicial review of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, namely R v Secretary of State ex parte ARC & Ors. This is a hugely significant case which concerns whether the provisions of the 2024 Act which reduce the price payable in relation to the enfranchisement of land are lawful. Mark Loveday and Robyn Cunningham appeared for the Secretary of State and James Fieldsend appeared for one of the claimant charities. Judgment is awaited.

Judgment has been handed down by the Court of Appeal in Kulkarni v Gwent Holdings Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 1206 in which Andrew Butler KC and Hugh Rowan appeared for the Appellant. This is an important case on the meaning of the phrase ‘capable of remedy’ in a contract. The principal point to be taken from the case is that a practical approach to whether a breach can be remedied ought to be taken as opposed to a technical one. The relevant question is whether the ‘mischief’ caused by a breach of contract can be meaningfully redressed.

Andrew Butler KC and Annie Higgo appeared in Ellis & Ors v John Benson Limited [2025] EWHC 2096 (KB). The case concerned whether a series of franchise agreements contained implied obligations of good faith, and whether the Defendant had breached those obligations in such a way as to entitle the Claimant franchisees to treat themselves as discharged from their obligations. A link to the judgment can be found here.

Articles

Andrew Butler KC has written an article concerning Almacantar v de Valk [2025] UKUT 298 and Schedule 8 of the Building Safety Act 2022. This decision confirms, inter alia, that Schedule 8 of the Act applies to work carried out before the 30 year period prior to the Act coming into force. A link to the article can be found here.

James Castle explores the nature of proprietary estoppel and why claims based upon this doctrine frequently fail in commercial cases. A link to the article can be found here.

In her latest piece, Nicola Muir examines the difficulties encountered by RTM companies in recovering their costs of enforcing leasehold covenants and how this difficulty can be addressed. A link to the article can be found here.

Annie Higgo provides a useful guide on issues that may arise when handling possession proceedings involving deceased parties. A link to the article can be found here.

The Tanfield Talks podcast

Our podcast series, Tanfield Talks, continues so please do have a listen to the most recent episode by Martin Young and Nora Wannagat entitled, Business rates liability: corporate ratepayer insolvency.

We have now built up a significant back catalogue of business and property-related podcasts, to which we intend to add over the coming weeks, so please explore them via your preferred platform.

Upcoming events

We look forward to seeing our contacts at the upcoming ALEP Conference on 15 October, at which Mark Loveday, Piers Harrison, James Fieldsend, and Robyn Cunningham will be giving seminars. The event is taking place at 1 Great George St, London SW1P 3AA from 8.45.

Andrew Butler KC will be at the PNLA & WS Society Conference in Edinburgh on 23 October 2025 taking place at The Signet Library Parliament Square, Edinburgh, EH1 1RF. Please do come if you are in the area or just fancy the trip.

Andrew Butler KC and Hugh Rowan are giving an ‘online classroom’ seminar at The Law Society to provide a Building Safety Act 2022 update. The link to the event is here.

Please keep an eye out for the Tanfield Junior Conference 2026! We will be announcing the date soon.