Stuart Miles

Experience

• Achieving a favourable settlement of a case from a high street lender pursuing a proprietary tracing claim against a freehold owner of a residential apartment.
• Conducting litigation in respect of a claim to set aside an expert’s decision assessing rent pursuant to a rent review clause.
• Obtaining a successful settlement against a commercial tenant who had made alterations outside of their demise to the retained part of a landlord’s building.
• Successfully acted for a tenant who had been sued for rent arrears, using an estoppel based defence.
• Dealing with an application for an unopposed renewal for a business tenant.
• Advising a tenant following the service of a schedule of dilapidations.
• Application to the First Tier Tribunal to dispense with the requirements to consult under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Proactively using Daejan Investments Limited v Benson to obtain urgent dispensation in an instance where it was anticipated that a water pump-set was due for imminent catastrophic failure.
• Dealing with the capability of the assignment of the right to recover service charges to the collection of participating leaseholders of an enfranchised block of flats, pursuant to Section 141 of the Law of Property Act 1925.
• Dealing with the recovery of substantial service charges for a registered management company involving a dispute with a leaseholder who owned 36 flats at the development. Tribunal application involved multiple heads of items challenged in the Scott schedules.
• Obtaining the freehold on behalf of leaseholders in respect of their absentee landlord, pursuant to an application for a vesting order.
• Managing a group action against a landlord for claims for misrepresentation during the sales, the defective build of the estate and breaches of covenants in the leases. Dealing with multiple limitation deadlines and handling standstill agreements.
• Successfully rectifying a title in proceedings in the Land Registration Division.
• Forfeiture of a lease with a defence from the assignee of the lease of waiving the right to forfeit, due to the demand being sent to the assignor of the lease and dealing with the evidential burden of whether the demand was received.
• Dealing with relief from forfeiture applications of severely dilapidated premises whereby the premises were brought back to standard expected by the covenants in the leases. Liaising with Surveyor to achieve a successful outcome.
• Dealing with an application for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal over when the legal and beneficial interest in a freehold title passes during an aborted transaction to sell the freehold title.
• Securing an order for the sale of a property for a client who had separated from their partner, utilising Section 14 of TOLATA.
• Achieving a settlement to imply a right of way to landlocked unregistered land, which resulted in the client obtaining a formal deed of easement across neighbouring land.
• Obtaining a Court declaration for a right of way where the title documents had failed to record the right and the relevant documents could not be located.
• Securing a settlement via mediation in proceedings brought in the Land Registration Division in relation to opposing a complex claim brought for adverse possession.

Career

After gaining his law degree at Lancaster University and his LPC at the College of Law in York, Stuart qualified at a specialist residential property litigation firm in Liverpool. This allowed him to acquire experience dealing with the minefield of case law and legislation which governs this area.

He then moved to London in 2018 to expand his practice in property litigation and experience other disciplines within dispute resolution.

He joined Wright Hassall in 2024.

Memberships

• Property Litigation Association

Interests

Outside of work Stuart enjoys most team sports. Football, rugby and cricket are his main passions.

He also enjoys travel and spending time with his family.