What's The Use Of A Property Guardian?

• Published date: 26 May 2022
• Law Firm: Gatehouse Chambers
• Author: Mr John Clargo

"What's the use of a property guardian?" While that might be a potentially facetious question in the mouth of a person who has no experience of property guardians, it was also the question which was decided recently in the interesting Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) decision of Martin Rodger QC, Deputy Chamber President, in Global 100 Limited v Carlos Jimenez & Ors [2022] UKUT 50 (LC). In that case, however, the question was not facetious but, rather, a serious legal one which determined the outcome of the dispute.

For those who have not come across the concept before, the Court of Appeal described a property guardian in London Borough of Southwark v. Ludgate House Ltd [2020] EWCA Civ 1637 as "a private individual who...occupies vacant premises under a temporary contractual licence until the owner requires it for redevelopment. The agreement provides the guardian with accommodation at a lower cost than in the conventional residential letting market ... and it provides the building owner with some protection against squatters ...". The issue in that case was whether the guardians were in rateable occupation for the purposes of liability for national non-domestic rates (and the Court of Appeal decided they were not).

G100L had...