Profile

• BA (Warwick)
• Called to the Bar 1997
• Member of ALBA

Genevieve is a civil and public law practitioner, with an emphasis on housing and community care provision, landlord and tenant, property and contract/commercial. Genevieve lectures and contributes to seminars on topics relevant to her areas of specialism.

HOUSING

Section 204 appeals, allocation, Right to Buy, regulatory work (repair orders/closure orders, appeals and enforcement)

PUBLIC

Housing, community care, National Assistance Act and Children Act cases, mental health, public interest immunity issues.

LANDLORD AND TENANT/PROPERTY

Disrepair, possession claims, anti-social behaviour, service charge disputes, rent reviews, adverse possession, mortgages and land charges.

COMMERCIAL

Contract disputes, business leases (mixture of local authority and commercial clients), debt/asset recovery, banking litigation.

CASES OF INTEREST

Bristol City Council v Hassan & Glastonbury [2006] EWCA Civ 656. Junior counsel for the local authority on case involving consideration of suspended possession orders. Court's discretion to make types of order different to prescribed form.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Deugi [2006] EWCA Civ 159. Homelessness appeal. Issue of an authority's power to withdraw decisions outside of the statutory scheme.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Ranhara Begum [2005] EWCA Civ 116. Issue as to the appropriate forum in which an aggrieved applicant could challenge a local authority's exercise of a statutory duty, and to what extent an Article 8 human rights defence could be used to defeat a possession claim.

Barrett v London Borough of Tower Hamlets [2005] EWCA Civ 923. Adverse possession. The doctrine that the possessory title to land acquired by a squatting tenant should be presumed to endure for the landlord's benefit should be extended so that on the sale of the reversion to the land comprised in the original tenancy the possessory title to the land acquired by adverse possession would be presumed to be included in the sale.

PUBLICATIONS

Genevieve is a co-founder and co-editor of chambers Housing e-bulletin, a free, quarterly email publication of legal developments sent to local authorities, registered social landlords and solicitors nationwide. To view the current and historic e-bulletins please see the 'News' section.

Solicitor's Journal - "Post Bristol v Hassan - The Future of Supended Possession Orders". Aug ‘07