Year of Call: 1987
Year of Silk: 2006

Profile

Edwin Johnson was called to the Bar in 1987 and joined 9 Old Square (now merged with Maitland Chambers) in 1988.

Edwin was appointed Standing Counsel to the Rent Assessment Panel in 2000, was Chambers & Partners Real Estate Junior of the Year in 2005 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2006.  Edwin is an editor of Snell’s Equity (31st Edition), responsible for the Securities section of this work.

Edwin’s practice is in property, chancery and commercial litigation and advisory work, in particular property disputes (including mineral rights), all aspects of landlord and tenant (including leasehold enfranchisement) and professional negligence (solicitors, surveyors, valuers, architects, other construction professionals, accountants and insurance brokers), conveyancing, mortgages, easements, restrictive covenants, trusts, insolvency, commercial contracts, building and construction work and insurance work.  Clients range from individuals and small companies through to large estates, global corporations and public authorities.  Edwin has particular experience of acting for public authorities in relation to their property holdings, including the complex area of service charges in leases of public authority housing stock.

Recent cases of interest include Earl Cadogan v Atlantic Telecasters Ltd [2008] UKHL 71 (whether hope value included in valuation of price on leasehold enfranchisement) Howard de Walden Estates Ltd v Aggio; 26 Cadogan Square Ltd v Earl Cadogan [2008] UKHL 44 (whether a tenant of a flat and other premises not included in the flat was a qualifying tenant of the flat for the purposes of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993), Boss Holdings Ltd v Grosvenor West End Properties [2008] UKHL5 (whether a building was a house within the meaning of Section 2(1) of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967), Malmesbury v Strutt & Parker [2008] EWHC 424 (QB) (the impact of exaggeration of a claim on costs/taking conduct in a mediation into account in relation to costs), Malmesbury v Strutt & Parker [2007] EWHC 999 (QB)(surveyor’s negligence in relation to the grant of leases of premises for use as airport car parks), John Thomas v Ken Thomas Limited [2006] EWCA Civ 1504 (rights of forfeiture in respect of arrears of rent compromised by a company voluntary arrangement), Warborough v Central Midlands Estates [2006] PLSCS 139 (validity of a notice in a rent review), St. George’s Investment Co. v Gemini Consulting [2005] 1 EGLR 5 (setting aside of award in rent review arbitration for misconduct), Montlake v Lambert Smith Hampton [2005] 3 EGLR 149 (valuation negligence in relation to Wasps rugby ground), Fattal v John Lyon’s Charity [2005] 1 All ER 466 (valuation of price on leasehold enfranchisement), Shalson v John Lyon’s Charity [2004] 1 AC 802 (disregard of improvements on leasehold enfranchisement), and Muscat v Smith [2003] 1 WLR 2853, (exercise of right of set off against assignee of reversion).

Edwin has won three appeals in the House of Lords in the last year.  In Boss Holdings Edwin appeared for the successful tenant in the House of Lords.  Edwin then appeared for one of the successful tenants in the combined hearing, in the House of Lords, of the appeals in 26 Cadogan Square Ltd v Earl Cadogan and Aggio v Howard de Walden Estates Ltd.  At the end of the year Edwin had his third success, when he appeared for one of the successful tenants in the combined hearing, in the House of Lords, of a group of appeals in Cadogan v Atlantic Telecasters Ltd and others.

Cases

For a full list of Cases in which Edwin has been involved, including the recent cases referred to above, please click on the Cases icon above.

Lectures

To read the full text of Edwin's recent lectures 'Problems and solutions in enforcing duties to repair in leases of commercial premises' (Oct 2009), 'Case law kaleidoscope' (Sept 2009) and the Blundell Lecture 'The enforceability and unenforceability of charges over land' (June 2009), please click on the lecture title.

Publications
Snell's Equity (31st Edition), Contributor

Memberships
Edwin is a member of the Chancery Bar Association, the Professional Negligence Bar Association, and the Property Bar Association.

Chambers UK
Real Estate: “amazingly thorough in his preparation” and “extremely effective in handling intellectually demanding clients.” He has appeared in the House of Lords three times in the past year, most recently in relation to the Howard de Walden Estates litigation: this questioned whether a head lessee is entitled to claim new leases of individual flats in a block (2009) "brilliant advice"; "an unusually good knowledge of residential property and leasehold reform arrangements with experience in commercial property" (2008); “tip-top class act” “toughness, serenity and persuasiveness”

UK Legal 500
Property Litigation: Moving up is Edwin Johnson QC, who is ‘ exceptionally good on residential property and leasehold reform issues’ (2009) 'never flustered', 'superb advocacy and great powers of persuasion' (2008)

Legal Experts 2008
Commercial litigation, Property