Ollie Murrell

Call 2022

“Ollie is extremely knowledgeable, excellent at communicating and leaves no point unexamined, making him a go-to for real estate litigation matters. Clients quickly understand the value Ollie brings to their legal team."

For enquiries please contact

Stephen Arnold
Senior Practice Manager - Civil
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

Joe Stayte
Practice Manager - Commercial, Insolvency, Property & Estates, Court of Protection (Property & Affairs)
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

Finlay Duignan
Assistant Practice Manager - Commercial, Insolvency, Property & Estates, Court of Protection (Property & Affairs)
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

Charlotte Blair
Assistant Practice Manager - Commercial, Insolvency, Property & Estates, Court of Protection (Property & Affairs)
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

  • Lincoln’s Inn Droop Scholarship
  • Lincoln’s Inn Law Journal Prize
  • Newcastle Business & Property Court Forum Prize
  • Clyde & Co Prize for Maritime Law
  • John Theodore Hoyle Prize for Inquests
  • Equity & Trusts Prize

  • LLB: 1st Class (Honours)
  • LLM: Distinction
  • Bar Vocational Course (Distinction)

  • Chancery Bar Association
  • Contentious Trusts Association

Ollie practises predominantly in Property, Trusts and Estates, with a broader practice in Commercial, Insolvency and Professional Negligence matters and work in the Court of Protection relating to property and financial affairs. A number of Ollie’s cases have fraud elements and he has a particular interest in forgery issues.

Ollie appears in the High Court, County Court and First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) at all stages of proceedings, from interim relief and pre-action advice through to trials and appeals. Ollie regularly represents clients at mediations and in quasi-judicial ADR processes such as Party Wall Act determinations and adjudications.

Alongside his court practice, Ollie has a strong advisory practice in each of his specialisms. He has particular experience of advising on trusts, proprietary estoppel and related disputes, and contentious probate, administration of estates and inheritance claims.

Ollie is a co-author of a forthcoming book on the law relating to missing people in a trusts and estates context, due for publication in early 2025.

Expertise

Ollie has litigation and advisory experience across the full range of real property and land-related matters, including:

  • Contentious and non-contentious advice relating to restrictive covenants (including discharge) and easements.
  • Adverse possession of registered and unregistered land.
  • Boundary disputes.
  • Land options, rights of pre-emption, overage clauses and similar.
  • Land registration and alteration/rectification of the Register.
  • Mortgages and charges.
  • Trespass, nuisance and related property torts.
  • All elements of commercial and residential landlord and tenant work.
  • Ollie is particularly noted for his experience of disputes which engage the Party Wall etc Act 1996, including appeals from surveyors’ determination, jurisdictional challenges and injunctive proceedings.

The following is a selection of his recent cases:

  • High Court administration action arising from a fraudulent investment scheme, concerning: the correct characterisation and transmission of put option; validity of unilateral notices; whether put options/covenants are “security” under the Insolvency Act 1986.
  • Three-day trial regarding a boundary dispute, the scope of an adverse possession defence and the effect of a 2-year delay on injunctive relief.
  • Two-day trial in the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) concerning the reasonableness of service charges and the interpretation of insurance provisions in 26 long-leases.
  • Urgent injunction in the High Court and subsequent proceedings to restrain a breach of the Party Wall Act, breach of covenant and nuisance.
  • Appeal from a surveyors award under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 challenged on jurisdictional grounds and manifest error.
  • Advising a commercial property developer on the validity of the termination of an agreement to lease valued at £1.65m, and the consequential effect on and discharge of freehold covenants.
  • Advising and representing a property transferee defending an application to set-aside the transfer on the basis the various transfer documents were fraudulently doctored and signatures forged.
  • Advising a cohabitee facing with allegations they fraudulently created and/or forged signatures on a declaration of trust.

 

Ollie regularly represents and advises trustees and personal representatives, beneficiaries, and professional advisors in relation to:

  • Administration of trusts and estates.
  • Inheritance tax and associated taxation of trusts and estates.
  • Contentious and non-contentious trusts and estates applications.
  • Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
  • Claims concerning the substantive and formal validity of wills (formalities, testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval, undue influence, fraudulent calumny and other fraud).
  • Challenges to lifetime gifts and creation of trusts.
  • Construction of trust documents, wills and consequential applications.
  • Duties and powers of trustees/personal representatives.
  • Trusts of land and proprietary estoppel in domestic, commercial and mixed contexts.

Examples of Ollie’s recent cases:

  • Acting as sole counsel in a High Court claim concerning the formal validity of two wills, allegations of fraudulent creation and destruction of wills, and the presumption of revocation (4-day trial listed).
  • Representing executors/trustees of a £1.2million estate and c.£1million trust in a claim to set-aside five wills and the trust settlement for lack of capacity and want of knowledge and approval. Involves complex capacity issues arising from the testator/donor’s catastrophic head injury before making the wills/trusts, with lasting dysphasia and epilepsy.
  • Advising and representing an estate in a claim to the entire estate property under a resulting trust, with ancillary issues of breach of fiduciary duties, abuse of an LPA, and laches (4-day trial listed).
  • Representing a creditor/specific legatee in a forfeiture claim arising from the testator’s suicide and a consequential action for an account.
  • Advised and represented at mediation an adult child in a wide ranging inter-family dispute over multiple properties purchased for mixed investment and residential purposes involving lifetime gifts and resulting/constructive trusts.
  • Advised and represented a disinherited husband in a High Court claim regarding recission of a lifetime transfer for undue influence, the beneficial ownership of family property, and an Inheritance Act claim brought six years post-grant.
  • Obtained a Re Benjamin order to enable executors to distribute on the basis missing beneficiaries were dead in the novel circumstance that there was recent evidence the beneficiaries were alive.

Ollie acts and advises across a wide range of commercial disputes, including pension schemes, all types of contractual disputes, mortgages and financial services, business protection, and company disputes.

Ollie also has a broad professional negligence practice involving a range of professional advisors including: solicitors and barristers; surveyors, architects and other construction professionals; insurers; veterinarians; estate agents and conveyancers; and auctioneers.

Ollie’s recent experience includes:

  • Representing a billion-pound trading platform in business-to-business injunctive proceedings arising from breach of employee covenants, procuring breach of contract, conspiracy, and knowing receipt (instructed against a KC).
  • Representing and advising an estate beneficiary in a claim against former legal representatives for failing to take steps to prevent the dissipation of assets by a known fraudster.
  • Represented a company director defending a High Court claim for fraudulent misrepresentation arising from a construction project, valued between £500k-£1m.
  • Advised and represented at mediation a director/shareholder of a failed joint venture defending a substantial claim for unpaid contributions under the joint venture agreement on capacity grounds and accounting errors.
  • Advised on a fraudulent misrepresentation claim against former legal representatives arising from a struck-off solicitor, employed as a consultant, holding-out as a practising solicitor.
  • Acted for a Right to Manage company in a claim against a former director for fraudulent activity and breach of fiduciary duties.

Ollie acts in a broad range of insolvency matters arising out of bankruptcy and corporate insolvency. Ollie is particularly well placed to act in insolvency matters which have property, trusts and/or estates elements or arise from that context.

The following is a sample of Ollie’s recent experience:

  • High Court administration action arising from a fraudulent investment scheme. Involved several novel issues, including: whether options/covenants are “security” within the Insolvency Act 1986; the rights of option holders in an administration; and whether put options fall within para 71, schedule B1 (led by Stefan Ramel).
  • Represented administrators in an urgent injunction brought by a former director to frustrate the realisation and sale of company assets.
  • Represented a Right to Manage company in a claim under ss.212 and 214 Insolvency Act 1986 arising from fraudulent trading by a director.
  • Represented joint liquidators in a claim under s.127 Insolvency Act 1986 to recover a void disposition paid to a shadow director.
  • Obtained an urgent injunction in the High Court to restrain the presentation of a winding up petition.
  • Advised receivers and various creditors on the appropriate strategy for defending a claim brought by a debtor to jeopardise a restructuring plan.
  • Various complex possession and sale applications.
  • Resisted a winding-up petition against a Northern Irish company on jurisdictional grounds

Ollie has quickly developed a civil fraud practice which spans each of his main practice areas. This is a selection of Ollie’s recent fraud work:

  • Advising and acting as sole counsel in a High Court claim between potential estate beneficiaries alleging the fraudulent creation of wills and cross-allegations those wills were fraudulently destroyed.
  • Advising a leaseholder on a claim to rescind a lease on the basis of fraudulent misrepresentation, deceit and duress by an agent during the negotiation process.
  • Represented an RTM in an insolvency claim against a former director for fraudulent trading.
  • Advising a transferee of property facing allegations they forged signatures on the TR1.
  • Advising a cohabitee facing allegations they tampered with the beneficial interest provisions in a trust deed and forged signatures on the deed and various other contemporaneous documents.
  • Struck out a personal guarantor’s defence which alleged forgery and disputed the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh Courts.
  • Advised on a fraudulent misrepresentation claim against former legal representatives arising from the statement by a struck-off solicitor employed as a consultant that they were a practising solicitor.

For enquiries please contact

Stephen Arnold
Senior Practice Manager - Civil
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

Joe Stayte
Practice Manager - Commercial, Insolvency, Property & Estates, Court of Protection (Property & Affairs)
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

Finlay Duignan
Assistant Practice Manager - Commercial, Insolvency, Property & Estates, Court of Protection (Property & Affairs)
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

Charlotte Blair
Assistant Practice Manager - Commercial, Insolvency, Property & Estates, Court of Protection (Property & Affairs)
0117 930 9000
Click here to email

  • Lincoln’s Inn Droop Scholarship
  • Lincoln’s Inn Law Journal Prize
  • Newcastle Business & Property Court Forum Prize
  • Clyde & Co Prize for Maritime Law
  • John Theodore Hoyle Prize for Inquests
  • Equity & Trusts Prize

  • LLB: 1st Class (Honours)
  • LLM: Distinction
  • Bar Vocational Course (Distinction)

  • Chancery Bar Association
  • Contentious Trusts Association

For help or advice please call 0117 930 9000 or complete the form below.

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