SEBASTIAN KOKELAAR

CONTACT

13-14 Old Square

Reception at 14 Old Square
Lincoln’s Inn
London
WC2A 3UE
DX 52 London - Chancery Lane
T: +44 (0)20 7831 4445
F: +44 (0)20 7841 5825
E: clerks@13oldsquare.com

We are open between 8.30am
and 6.30pm Monday to Friday.

Outside of office hours please
call Justin Brown, Senior Clerk
on 0777 578 1995.

Sebastian Kokelaar

Year of call: 2004
Education: MA, MPhil (Jesus College, Cambridge)
Languages: Dutch (fluent) , French, German (working knowledge) and Italian (basic)
Email: sebastiankokelaar@13oldsquare.com

Areas of practice

Sebastian specialises in Chancery and commercial law, with a particular emphasis on disputes about land including:

• All aspects of landlord and tenant law (commercial, agricultural, and residential)
• Easements and freehold covenants
• Boundary disputes and adverse possession claims
• Trusts of land and proprietary estoppel
• Unlawful interference with land (nuisance, trespass)
• Mortgages
• Land registration
• Disputes about contracts for the sale of land (or grant of an interest in it)
• Professional negligence claims arising out of property transactions
• Housing Law

He is also frequently instructed in insolvency proceedings on behalf of office holders, creditors and debtors, and in general commercial litigation.

He appears before a variety of tribunals including the High Court, County Courts and the Adjudicator to HM Land Registry the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) and the Leasehold Vaulation Tribunal, and has considerable experience of alternative forms of dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration.

In 2004 Sebastian was the judicial assistant to the Chancellor of the High Court for two terms.

Reported cases

Lawrence and another v Fen Tigers Ltd and others [2011] All ER (D) 96 (Mar) (led by Robert McCracken QC): noise nuisance claim against owners and operators of a motorsports stadium for the owners and operators of a motorsports stadium. Issues in the case included whether the defendants had acquired a prescriptive right to cause a noise nuisance. Appeals by both sides against the decision of HHJ Seymour QC to be heard by the Court of Appeal later this year.

Re Gonsalves (a bankrupt) [2011] BPIR 419: counsel for the trustees in proceedings to obtain possession of the `bankrupt’s home. Whether court’s discretion under section 363 Insolvency Act 1986 to postpone date for `possession constrained by section 89 Housing Act 1980.

Publications

• Into the breach, Solicitors Journal, 31 March 2006 (on the decision of the House of Lords in Avonridge Property Co Ltd v Mashru)
• A duty to mitigate?, Property Law Journal, No. 182 5 February 2007 (on the decision of the Court of Appeal in Reichman & anr v Gauntlett & anr)
• Damages versus injunction, Construction Law, Vol. 18 Issue 2 March 2007
• Assessing damages in lieu of an injunction, Construction Law, Vol. 18 Issue 3 April 2007
• Damage limitation, New Law Journal, 20 April 2007
• Parking Restrictions, Estates Gazette, 8 April 2008 (on easements of parking)
• One way or another, Property Law Journal, No. 229 27 April 2009 (on enforcing contracts for the sale of land)
• Salvaging the landlord’s position, Credit Today, Insolvency & Recue supplement, February 2010 (on recovery of rent in administration)
• Mumps and gum trees: the development of liability in tort for things naturally occurring on land, Bulletin of the Agricultural Law Association, Issue 62 – Autumn 2010 (reprinted in Farm Law 2010, 170, 17-20

Memberships

Chancery Bar Association
Property Bar Association
Agricultural Law Association