Edward Francis

Ed has expertise and experience across the whole spectrum of property work, his main area of practice, for which he has developed a strong reputation as a leading junior.

He regularly advises and appears in courts and tribunals in disputes concerning easements, restrictive covenants, conveyancing, land registration and priorities, adverse possession, boundaries and party walls, trespass and nuisance, mortgages, options and rights of pre-emption, overage, and trusts of land and proprietary estoppel.

He acts for landlords and tenants in commercial disputes concerning lease renewal, rent reviews, dilapidations, breaches of covenant and forfeiture, exercise of break and other options, and disclaimer and guarantees.  And he is also regularly engaged in disputes concerning residential tenancies and long leases, including individual and collective enfranchisement, right to manage and service charges.

Ed has appeared in several ground-breaking cases, including for the successful appellant in the important Court of Appeal decision in Cherry Tree Investments Ltd v Landmain [2013] Ch 477.

Recent cases include:

• acting for tenant in heavily fought five day trial, and in subsequent appeal, in claim for damages for breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment resulting from damage to tenant’s business from landlord’s redevelopment works to retained parts of building
• acting for charity trustee in High Court challenge to the sale of land forming part of the designated land of the charity which was obsolete and no longer required for purposes of charity (Dewar v Sheffield City Council [2019] 2 WTLR 495)
• acting for objector resisting application before Upper Tribunal for modification of restrictive covenant benefitting country estate (Re Geall’s Application [2018] UKUT 154 (LC))
• acting for applicants in four day FTT hearing claiming prescriptive right of way over upland farm-track providing important secondary means of access to dwellings (Bealing v Parsons [2017] UKFTT 344 (PC))
• acting for co-owner of high value commercial property in four day trial concerning dispute over basis on which company controlled by other co-owner was in occupation, and on claim for order for sale and accounts
• advising on claim in nuisance resulting from erosion to canal bank
• advising on claims by investors of failed hotel development scheme to unpaid vendor liens

With a solid grounding in insolvency work in junior practice, Ed now focuses on property-related insolvency matters, including administrations and CVAs affecting retail tenants.

He acted (with Peter Arden QC) for the landlords in their successful challenge to the Miss Sixty CVA on grounds of unfair prejudice (Mourant Property Trustees Ltd v Sixty SPA [2010] 2 EGLR 125).

He regularly advises on topics such as the effect of disclaimer in the context of both liquidations and company dissolutions, landlord’s priority claims to rent and other sums as administration expenses, and on claims arising in failed property developments (acting either for investors or office-holders).

As an adjunct of his property practice, Ed is regularly instructed in professional negligence claims against solicitors, surveyors and other property professionals, and is experienced in dealing with the range of technical issues concerning matters such as causation, damages attributable to the breach of duty, mitigation of loss, and contributory negligence commonly deployed in such claims.

Recent cases include:

• Advising investors in failing student accommodation development scheme in relation to claims against property professionals
• Acting for claimant lender against third party professionals involved in loan transaction following failure to put in place promised security and subsequent impugned compromise of loan
• Acting for well-known London hairdresser in damages claim resulting from loss of business tenancy due to failure to issue renewal application on time
• Acting for owner of Mayfair property in claim against conveyancing solicitors resulting from failure to advise of adverse rights affecting property

Ed has a wealth of experience across the commercial chancery field, in claims for the enforcement of guarantees, challenges to transactions on grounds of misrepresentation, undue influence and fraud, claims for breach of fiduciary obligations, asset recovery and tracing, equipment leasing and finance, partnership and shareholder disputes, amongst other areas.

Recent cases include:

• Acting for ousted partner in heavily contested four day trial concerned with taking of dissolution accounts and share of post-dissolution profits, involving successful challenge to veracity of figures for turnover in accounts provided by surviving partner
• Acting for borrowers in claim for redemption of charges based upon tender; question relating to validity of tender where tender monies to be raised by refinancing conditional upon release of existing securities (Shearer v Spring Capital Ltd [2013] EWHC 3148 (Ch)
• Acting for defendant in High Court four day trial for rescission and damages of sale of ransom strip based on fraudulent misrepresentation (Bush & Baseline Properties Ltd v King [2013] EWHC 966 (QB)
• Acting for equipment-leasing company in respect of equipment leased to tenant and affixed to premises in claim for damages against landlord of premises based upon tort of unlawful interference following forfeiture of lease and reletting of premises with equipment in situ (Michael Gerson Leasing Ltd v Greatsunny Ltd [2010] Ch 558

Ed regularly advises and acts in contentious probate and Inheritance Act claims, and in claims relating to administration of estates.

He acted for the executor in Re Samuel deceased [2018] EWHC 3513 (Ch) in a successful application to strike out as an abuse of process a challenge by a child of the deceased to her last will based on the same grounds as a previous challenge brought by another child which had been compromised without determination on its merits.