Camilla Lamont

Property

Camilla has been consistently recognised as a leading junior in real estate litigation by Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners and as a national and global leader by WWL UK Bar and WWL Global Real Estate.  She has twice been named Real Estate Junior of the Year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards, in both 2017 and 2021, and is currently ranked as a Tier 1 senior junior in real estate litigation.

Her practice covers all aspects of real property including conveyancing and title disputes. She regularly acts for clients in relation to development agreements as well as options, restrictive covenants, easements and rights to light that affect property development. She also handles property related environmental work, in particular relating to nuisance, as well as professional negligence claims.

Camilla’s landlord and tenant practice encompasses, amongst other things, dilapidations, tenant default and insolvency, forfeiture, break clauses, rent review, service charges, ESG and 1954 Act renewals. She also has considerable experience of disputes relating to the management of both residential and commercial premises.

She has appeared in high profile property cases in both the High Court and Court of Appeal. Significant property cases in which she has acted include:

• Crest Nicholson Residential (South) Ltd v McAllister [2004] 1 WLR 2409 (restrictive covenants)(petition to House of Lords)
• Carter and another v Cole and another [2006] EWCA Civ 398 (easements)
• G & S Brough Ltd v Salvage Wharf Ltd & Birmingham Development Company (2008) Ch D, (rights of light)
• Chappell v Chappell (2013) Ch D (rectification of transfer of landed estate)
• Christofi v National Bank of Greece [2015] All ER (D) 84 (charging orders, recognition of foreign judgments under the Judgments Regulations)
• Leaseholders of Foundling Court and O’Donnell Court v Camden LBC [2017] L & TR 7 (service charges)
• Discovery (Northampton) Ltd v Debenhams Retail Ltd [2019] EWHC 2441 (Ch) (CVAs)
• Davies-Gilbert v Goacher & Chester [2022] EWHC 969 (reasonableness of refusal of consent for development under restrictive covenant).

Camilla has previously held posts as a tutor and lecturer of land law, equity & trusts and commercial leases at Oxford University. In 2019 she was appointed a fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies (University of London) and is a member of its advisory board. She has published widely in her field and has been an editor of Hill & Redman on Landlord and Tenant since 2002.

She regularly lectures on property law and practice. She was a speaker at the PLA Midlands CPD updates in 2023 (on the MEES Regulations) and  2019 (on electronic signatures), the Insolvency Lawyers’ Association Annual Conference 2018 (on property issues in CVAs), the ChBA Shanghai Conference 2018 (on good faith in development contracts), the ChBA Property Seminar 2018 (on the 1954 Act), the PLA Annual Conference 2018 (on landlord’s consents) and the PLA Annual Training Day 2017 (on rating for property lawyers), the 2016 ChBA Conference (on nuisance), the 2015 UKELA Conference (on flooding and nuisance claims) and the 2015 Property Bar Association Conference (on service charges).

Camilla has been a qualified mediator since 2009 and accepts instructions to act as a mediator in relation to property disputes. 

Commercial Landlord and Tenant

Camilla’s commercial landlord and tenant practice encompasses, amongst other things, dilapidations, tenant default and insolvency, forfeiture, break clauses, rent review, service charges, the electronic communications code, ESG and 1954 Act renewals.

Camilla is regularly instructed in respect of opposed and unopposed lease renewals, most frequently relating to retail and warehousing units. She has co-authored a book for the RICS on the subject. She has recently acted for the Crown Estate Commissioners in a ground (f) case relating to a building on Piccadilly, as well as for both landlord and tenants in unopposed lease renewal proceedings relating to retail units occupied by Next, Dunelm, Poundland and WHSmith.

Camilla has considerable experience in the field of tenant default and commercial forfeiture, including tenant insolvency. She was a speaker at the Insolvency Lawyers’ Association Annual Conference on the topic of property issues arising in CVAs and formed part of the team that successfully acted for Debenhams Retail Ltd in opposing the challenge to its CVA in the High Court. She represented a superior landlord in successfully forfeiting the head lease of an apartment building at Princes Dock in Liverpool following an allegedly fraudulent transfer.

Her service charge expertise extends to commercial leases and mixed-use schemes. She has advised a number of institutional landlords and retail tenants as to the apportionment of services charges in shopping centres. She acted for head lessors in a multi-party service charge dispute before the Upper Tribunal in respect of the Brunswick Centre.

In the field of rent review, Camilla receives instructions to advise as to the correct construction of rent review provisions and to make submissions in the context of expert determination.

Camilla has been appointed to act as a single joint expert in this field and welcomes such instructions. She was awarded the RICS Award in Arbitration in 2012. Camilla is also an established mediator and has experience of successfully mediating commercial property disputes.

Residential Leasehold Management and Disputes

Camilla undertakes residential work, particularly relating to service charges, management, building safety and the development and disposal of mixed-use estates. She has considerable experience in service charge litigation and is the editor of the chapter in Hill & Redman’s Law of Landlord and Tenant on residential service charges and management.

She acted for a number of the respondents in Leaseholders of Foundling Court and O’Donnell Court v Camden LBC [2016] UKUT 366, [2017] L & TR 7, a multi-party service charge dispute before the Upper Tribunal relating to the Brunswick Centre in which it was held that obligation to consult fell upon a superior landlord. She has acted in contested proceedings for the appointment of a manager of a residential building in Chelsea under Part 2 of the 1987 Act.

She represented a superior landlord in successfully forfeiting the head lease of an apartment building at Princes Dock in Liverpool following an allegedly fraudulent transfer, and dealing with multiple applications for relief by way of vesting order made by leaseholders and lenders.

Camilla has recently advised both landlords and tenants as to the implications of the Supreme Court decision in Duval v 11-13 Randolph Crescent Ltd [2020] UKSC 18 for the management of residential buildings and in particular the treatment of applications for landlord’s consent to alterations.

She also provides advice in relation to the application of tenants’ rights of first refusal under Part I of the 1987 Act.

Environment

Camilla’s environmental practice is property-related and includes nuisance and contaminated land. She has a particular interest in claims arising out of flooding, a subject on which she has published articles. She was a speaker at the UKELA Annual Conference 2015 on the issue of liability for flooding.

Camilla has “recognised skill in dealing with property disputes with an environmental angle” (Chambers and Partners 2015) and “has been extremely active this year handling commercial development and property-related environmental matters” (Who’s Who Legal UK Bar, 2015).

Clients that Camilla has acted for in her environmental practice include:

• A statutory body whose estate had been affected by coal mining subsidence.
• A developer in relation to flooding of a disused railway tunnel.
• National Grid in litigation arising out of the installation of a gas pipeline.
• A factory operator in a claim regarding alleged pollution by discharge of organic effluent.
• Owners of a flat alleging noise nuisance from ventilation plant.
• Factory owners seeking to establish rights to abstract water from and discharge into a river.
• Local authorities in respect of contaminated land and coastal protection schemes.
• A public body regarding the interpretation of a “green lease” and the provision of CHP Plant.

Mediation

Camilla became an accredited mediator in 2009 and has successfully acted as a mediator both in relation to property disputes and more generally in commercial and civil disputes. She is willing to mediate a wide range of disputes in person and by video conferencing. She also holds the RICS Award in Arbitration which she was awarded in 2012.

She has extensive knowledge of the law as well as a practical understanding of the wider issues often facing participants in these types of disputes, whether they arise between commercial entities or private clients. She is ideally placed to help participants find solutions to property and inheritance centred disputes, especially those between landlords and tenants, neighbours and family members. She has successfully mediated a number of property disputes ranging from commercial dilapidations to disputes as to the beneficial ownership of family assets. She also mediates disputes that are unconnected to property.

Camilla is a member of the Chancery Bar Pro Bono Mediation Scheme and mediates chancery/ property disputes referred to her through that scheme.

As well as acting as a mediator she has considerable experience acting for property clients as a mediation advocate.

ADR