A Small World

[brightncheerful]

This true tale might interest you.

In March 1988, a dispute Johnston v Holland arrived in the Court of Appeal. The case would become an important and comprehensive review of the scope of the principle of derogation from grant. An unusual dispute about a mixed user (commercial and residential) property of which Holland owned the residue of an intermediary long lease to Johnston, itself both freeholder and tenant. It was also unusual because, at least in my experience, the judge provided a history of how it had come about that Miss Holland was the leaseholder. The solicitors that instructed her barrister were recorded.

Sometime after Ida Holland won the case, her solicitors recommended my services, and she instructed me to deal with two rent reviews over a period of 10 years. I got to know her quite well and she invited me to lunch at her home in North London. We dined off crockery that she had made herself at pottery classes and much of the food we ate she had grown in her garden. By then, for 50 years, she had been a regular at the City Litt https://www.citylit.ac.uk/about-us. I remember asking how she had become so self-sufficient, her answer was "the judicious choice of parents".

Yesterday a woman telephoned me asking how much I would charge to deal with a rent review in one of two shops of which she is the landlord. Nowadays, I am so busy that before answering for the possibility of taking on work from new clients, I ask several questions, one of which is the address of the property. I can then search my database for the details either of the property or properties nearby to give me an idea of what I would be letting myself in for if I were to be forthcoming. I couldn't find any property on the road, yet it sounded familiar. Then I remembered Johnson v Holland, and sure enough, it was the same property that I'd dealt with. I guess that the second shop had been built on the passageway featured in the law report. Telling her of my having acted for Miss Holland, I asked which side of the family she was on, Johnston. Although the rent now is on the cusp of my minimum level for taking on work from new clients, I said that, for sentimental reasons, I would reduce my fee and told her what I would charge; she thanked me and said she would contact me again when she had decided. I don't expect her to instruct me. I thought the inquiry was a fishing expedition to enable her to get a lower fee from other surveyors (most surveyors charge a lot more than I do).

Thanks to www, it is possible to undertake due diligence in minutes rather than days. I discovered that she is the significant shareholder in the company that owns the freehold. That Miss Holland's solicitor resides in a Listed property in an affluent county not far from where my two business colleagues live. I called one colleague to ask if he had heard of the house, yes, and he walks past it regularly. On the Google map that accompanies a search for the whereabouts of the house, I notice the same place as one of the John Lewis & Partners properties that my ex-girlfriend took me to during the 1980s and where for me to be allowed in she had to pretend we were married. Memories came flooding back to me of my relaxing rowing a boat on the nearby stream. I also realised how near it was to where I hosted a party for my 60th birthday, about which simsqu c/o TLF kindly wrote me a delightful present on TMF that some folk might remember.

For closure, I have sent a similar to the above to the barrister and her solicitor.

Bnc