JMW recently helped defend possession proceedings and were able to keep JMW’s client living in the home that she was occupying. We were able to successfully argue that the claimant (the person seeking to evict) lacked standing to bring the possession proceedings.

JMW’s client is a trustee and the party seeking to evict JMW’s client is a co-trustee of the same trust. The trust owns a property that JMW’s client is living in. The co-trustee of the trust had sought to evict JMW’s client from the property.

How did JMW help?

JMW’s specialist property litigation team were able to successfully argue that the co-trustee had made a procedural error in bringing the claim. The co-trustee was acting in an individual capacity even though that individual didn’t own the property. The property was at all times owned by the trust and therefore the individual was not entitled to bring possession proceedings.

It is an established principle of trust law that trustees are required to act unanimously. On the basis that the co-trustee had sought to evict JMW’s client, the trustees were not acting unanimously.

JMW instructed barrister Sophie Gibson of Landmark Chambers in London.

The outcome

JMW’s client has remained in possession of the property and was awarded 80% of her legal costs. It is unusual for a court to award such a large amount of legal costs and therefore it was a positive outcome for JMW’s client.

JMW senior associate Tom Baylis commented “this was a particularly complex case, however, we were able to successfully argue that the co-trustee was not entitled to evict our client. We consider the result that our client has remained living in the property and received 80% of legal costs back to be a good result.”

Client feedback

JMW’s client said “I would like to extend my sincere thanks to you for all your hard work handling my case. You delivered all that was necessary in a very short time. I was always kept up to date and it was never too much trouble to speak to me at any time.
The level of expertise to which you expedited my claim was excellent and at this point please pass on to Sophie how grateful I am to her as well, defending us so well. I Truly am so grateful.”