John McGhee KC

Property

John’s practice covers the whole spectrum of real estate from advising and representing developers and investors in contractual disputes over major commercial developments to the esoteric areas of minerals, rights to light and the electronic communications code.

Notable cases include:

• Ventra Investments v Grainger [Ongoing]: Acting for the respondent where £25m in damages are sought by liquidators of a company against a manager appointed by a bank to realise its property portfolio alleging mismanagement and sale at undervalue.
• Huang v Credit Suisse [2025]: Acting for the respondent in a substantial summary judgment application where the claimant sought to set aside registration at Land Registry of charges to Credit Suisse on grounds that the charges were forged and executed without his authority. This could lead to the largest ever claim against the Land Registry for an indemnity.
• Cooper v Ludgate House Ltd and Powell v Ludgate House Ltd [2025]: Acting for the developer in a landmark case where the owners of two adjoining flats sought an injunction to require the developer of the Bankside Yards development to pull down part of the development on the grounds that it interfered with their rights of light. The court refused injunctive relief and awarded the flat owners only a small proportion of the sums they had sought as damages in lieu of an injunction.
• Iya Patarkatsishvili & Yevhen Hunyak v William Woodward-Fisher [2025] (“The Moths Case”): Successfully acted in a well-publicised claim to rescind the purchase of a £32million house on grounds that the vendor fraudulently failed to disclose moth infestation to the purchaser.
• Acting for Cornerstone in an appeal to the Supreme Court concerning fundamental issues as to the scope of the Telecommunications Code (2022).
• Advising developers and neighbouring owners in numerous rights of light claims (2005 to date).
• Acting for a port owner in complex claims against a development corporation relating to access rights to land (2022).
• Hicks v 89 Holland Park (Management) Ltd [2021] EWHC 930 (Ch) – acting for a management company in successfully resisting a claim by the adjoining owner that it was not entitled to refuse consent to plans for a proposed development on aesthetic grounds.
• EMI Group Ltd v Prudential Assurance Co Ltd [2020] EWHC 2061 (Ch) – acting for a landlord in a successful claim against the guarantor under an authorised guarantee agreement involving novel issues under the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995.
• Lodha Developers 1 GSQ Ltd v 1 GSQ1 Ltd [2020] EWHC 2356 (Ch) – acting for the purchaser of high-value residential property in a claim for relief from forfeiture and return of a deposit.

Download Property CV