Jayesh Kunwardia

Practice Areas

Jayesh Kunwardia is the Head of Housing & Property Litigation at Hodge Jones & Allen. A Partner at the firm since 2008 and a member of the firm’s Senior Management Team since 2015, Jayesh is recognised as one of the country’s leading housing and property dispute solicitors and regularly appears in the media to discuss housing and property dispute matters.

He leads a specialist team and litigates across a broad range of areas of housing and property law disputes ranging from disrepair claims, landlord and tenant disputes, judicial review, possession claims, reviews/appeals relating to local authority housing decisions to matters concerning freeholder or leaseholder disputes, injunctions, boundary disputes, property nuisance/negligence claims, rights of way, planning and party wall disputes including matters concerning compulsory purchase orders.

His ability and meticulous attention to detail has been recognised by various legal directories and awards. In 2015, he was named Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Award for Social Housing Law, whilst he was also named Civil Lawyer of the Year in the 2019 Asian Legal Awards. Moreover, his team were Highly Commended in the Solicitors Journal Awards in 2017, reflecting the depth of breadth of the practice.

Jayesh is well-known for representing a Camden homeowner in her case against HS2 Ltd, challenging the lawfulness and safety of the Three Tunnel design in Euston. Another of his most notable recent cases is that of Nzolameso v City of Westminster [2015] UKSC 22, where Jayesh cemented his position as a leading authority on the question of whether it is lawful for a Council to accommodate a homeless person a long way away from the authority’s own area where the homeless person was previously living.

Another of Jayesh’s reported cases is Regina (Eatherly) v LB Camden [2016] EWHC 3108 (Admin). This involved a planning challenge to the excavation of a basement which was not authorised under “permitted development” rights. Jayesh has extensive experience of cases decided in the First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), County Court, Administrative Court, Court of Appeal and in The Supreme Court. He is a member of both the Housing Law Practitioners Association and the Property Litigation Association.

Other notable cases Jayesh has advised on include, a multi-party claim involving 56 residents on a claim for repairs and damages against a housing association and Burgos & Amayo v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and others [2019] EWHC 2792 Admin where an application was brought under the Acquisition of Land Act 1981 to challenge the London Borough of Haringey (Ward Corner Regeneration Project) Compulsory Purchase Order.

Career

Qualified 2000. Partner at Hodge Jones & Allen in 2008. Joined the firm’s Management Board in 2015 and Senior Management Team in 2019. Data Protection Office and Money Laundering Reporting Officer since 2018. Head of IT and Facilities at Hodge Jones & Allen since 2019.

Professional Memberships

• The Housing Law Practitioners’ Association

• The Property Litigation Association

Personal

Enjoys swimming, tennis and badminton.