Wilson Horne

Practice Areas

Wilson’s real estate practice covers all aspects of land and landlord and tenant law with a bias towards development work. He deals with all related planning, environmental and highways. He has extensive experience of all types of commercial property agreements, including overage and section 106 agreements. He also has extensive experience of agricultural disputes. His work includes farming and property partnership / joint venture disputes. He handles cases concerning trust claims and claims for equitable relief, and many of these claims are allied to his property work. He deals with claims under the Telecommunications Act, Building Act and the Estate Agents Act.

Wilson is a regular user of the TCC Court and practices in the area of construction law related to his commercial property and development work. He has extensive experience of civil fraud in development and engineering disputes. Wilson’s professional negligence work falls within his normal practice areas, with particular emphasis on solicitors, surveyors and construction professionals.

A significant proportion of Wilson’s work is dealt with in arbitration and expert determination, and he is experienced in challenging these decisions. His clients include national developers, central and local government departments, diverse tenant operators and major land owners.

Wilson’s most recent cases in 2023 include:

Sheffield City Council v Scotfield Group Limited [2023] EWHC 990 (Ch), which concerned the determination of a substantial conditional contract for the sale of land where the contract contained unclear provisions concerning the time for the satisfaction of conditions and the termination provisions.

Mate v Mate [2023] EWHC 238 (Ch), which concerned a claim for proprietary estoppel / unjust enrichment in relation to the proceeds of sale of farm land for development. A sister / daughter had provided planning services to her mother and brothers who were the farming land owners. The land owners, shortly before the formal allocation of the land for residential development, dispensed with her services and entered into an option with a national developer. The Court held that the proceeds of sale could be the subject of a proprietary estoppel claim. The sister proved that her services had had a causative effect of the allocation of the land and her claim for unjust enrichment for her planning services was valued on the basis that she was a de facto land promoter.

Mullberry Homes Ltd v Barrow-in-Furness [2023] EWHC 38 (TCC), which concerned the determination of a conditional agreement for the sale of 2 separate sites on the basis that the purchaser had failed to make a valid planning application before a long stop date. The seller, which was also the Local Planning Authority, was found not to have acted in a Wednesbury unreasonable manner in refusing to validate the buyer’s application for planning permission. Hence the seller was not in breach of an implied term not to frustrate the fulfilment of the planning condition and was entitled to terminate the agreement. The Court held that it was reasonable for a Local Planning Authority to insist on 2 separate planning applications as there were planning reasons for doing so, namely as the existence of a separate development brief for each site.

Wilson is currently undertaking significant development work on the Isle of Man.

Career

University of Leeds LLB (Hons), Called 1992 (Lincoln's Inn). Regularly accepts direct access and licensed access instructions.

Professional Memberships

Chancery Bar Association

Planning and Environmental Bar Association

Northern Business and Property Bar Association

Agricultural Law Association

Personal

Away from work Wilson is a lover of the great outdoors and spends most of his spare time enjoying his working farm.

Publications

He is a regular contributor to Property Law UK