Property & Real Estate Barristers
James Hamerton-Stove
Year of call 2012
Instructing James
For further information or to instruct James please contact one of our following clerks:
Alex Southern
Practice Managers
Kieron Hatwell
Practice Managers
“I have instructed James on several occasions and his advice and performance have never been short of meticulous. I would recommend him without hesitation.”
“The client was very pleased with the result.”
“Brilliant”
- Queen Mother Scholarship (Middle Temple)
- Harmsworth Entrance Exhibition (Middle Temple)
- Bar Council Law Reform Essay Competition: Runner Up (CPE category, 2009)
- BA French and Philosophy, Magdalen College, University of Oxford
- GDL, Oxford Institute of Legal Practice
- BPTC, City Law School
- Chancery Bar Association
- Property Bar Association
- Spanish
- French
- Basic Russian
James has a busy practice in the full range of Chambers’ work. He focuses on property and general commercial / Chancery.
He has an approachable manner but is also a robust advocate who fights his client’s corner in court.
Outside of Chambers, James is a keen (but not able) participant in tennis, golf and skiing.
Areas of expertise
James acts frequently for both landlord and tenant in a wide variety of disputes, with a focus on possession, service charges and forfeiture.
Recently he has:
- Drafted an application to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for determination of breach of covenant within a residential lease under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.
- Acted for the mortgagee bank in defence of an application by unauthorised tenants to suspend a warrant for eviction under the Mortgage Repossessions (Protection of Tenants etc) Act 2010.
- Drafted an application for a declaration that a landlord had unreasonably withheld its consent to proposed alterations to residential property under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
- Successfully defended an application to release funds from the Court Funds Office to a BVI-registered company following collective enfranchisement.
- Acted in dispute in First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) over whether an application for collective enfranchisement was ‘made’ in time for the purposes of s.24(1) of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993.
- Frequently acted for landlords in possession claims based on forfeiture of valuable residential leases on grounds of non-payment of ground rent.
- Advised on the applicability of the anti-avoidance provisions of the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 in relation to a guarantor providing a guarantee of an assignor’s liabilities under an Authorised Guarantee Agreement (i.e. a sub-guarantee or ‘GAGA’) in connection with the assignment of a lease of commercial property in Soho, central London.
- Acted for tenant (a global supermarket chain) against landlord (another global supermarket chain) in a dispute over a lease renewal under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
- Advised vendors of a development site worth c.£2m on the issue of anticipatory repudiatory breach by a prospective purchaser (a property developer) under an option agreement.
- Advised on merits of a claim in contract for an alleged debt of over £200k against a deceased’s Estate after sale of various property by the Executors.
- Acted for mortgagee bank in an application to extend time for registration of a legal charge.