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 regularly 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 also 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 property co-ownership and trusts of land disputes (including proprietary estoppel), and contentious probate and inheritance claims.

Ollie is a co-author of a forthcoming book on the law relating to missing people in a trusts and probate context, due for publication in September 2024.

Expertise

Ollie has litigation and advisory experience in a broad 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 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 related injunctive proceedings.

The following is a selection of his recent cases:

  • 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 to restrain a breach of the Party Wall Act, breach of covenant and nuisance. The claim is ongoing.
  • Advising and representing the applicant to an adverse possession of unregistered land application with historic title issues (4-day trial listed).
  • Appeal from a surveyors award under the Party Wall etc Act 1996 challenged on the grounds the surveyors’ award was in excess of their jurisdiction and manifestly wrong.
  • 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 covenants.
  • Advising and representing a property owner defending an application to set-aside a transfer on the basis the various transfer documents were fraudulently doctored and the transferee’s signature was forged (ongoing).

Advising a cohabitee facing with allegations they fraudulently created and/or forged signatures on a declaration of trust (ongoing).

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

  • Trusts of land and proprietary estoppel in domestic, commercial and mixed contexts.
  • Administration of trusts and estates.
  • Inheritance tax and associated taxation of trusts and estates.
  • Contentious and non-contentious probate 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)
  • Construction of wills and consequential applications.
  • Duties and powers of personal representatives.

Ollie has developed particular experience in matters involving trusts of land and proprietary estoppel. He often speaks on these topics at conferences and has published a number of articles on property co-ownership.

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).
  • Advising and representing an estate in a claim to the entire estate property on the basis of a resulting trust, with ancillary issues of breach of fiduciary duties, abuse of an LPA, and laches (4-day trial listed).
  • Advised a creditor/specific legatee on the potential forfeiture implications arising from the testator’s suicide and the consequential action for an account.
  • Advised and represented at mediation an adult child in a broad wide ranging inter-family dispute regarding properties purchased for mixed investment and residential purposes involving Pallant v Morgan equity, lifetime gifts, and resulting and constructive trusts.
  • Advised and represented a disinherited husband in a High Court claim which involved recission of a lifetime transfer for undue influence, a claim to the beneficial ownership of family property, and a claim under the Inheritance Act (Provision for Family and Dependants) 1975 brought six years post-grant.
  • Acted at trial for a personal representative in a claim for devastavit and maladministration brought by estate creditors.
  • 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 has experience in a wide range of commercial disputes. He advises and acts in relation to disputes involving pension schemes, contracts, sale of goods and services, mortgages and consumer rights, and unfair terms.

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 an estate beneficiary in a claim against former legal representatives for failing to prevent the dissipation of assets following the fraudulent obtaining of a grant of probate.
  • Represented a director of a construction company set-aside judgment in a High Court claim for fraudulent misrepresentation arising from a construction project, valued between £500k-£1m, and advised on appeal prospects.
  • Advised and represented at mediation a director and shareholder of a failed joint venture defending a substantial claim for unpaid contributions under the joint venture agreement, disputed on the basis the director was not a contracting party and accounting errors by the claimant.
  • 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.
  • Acted for a Right to Manage company in a claim against a former director for fraudulent activity and breach of fiduciary duties.
  • Struck out the defence of a personal guarantor which alleged their signature was forged and disputed the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh Courts.
  • Represented at trial the trustees of a pension scheme which in a challenge to the trustees’ appointment for non-compliance with the requirements of the trust deed and various complaint policies as discriminatory.

 

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:

  • 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 the receivers of a debtor and various creditors on the appropriate strategy for defending a claim brought by the debtor to jeopardise a restructuring plan.
  • Various complex possession and sale applications. Ollie recently resisted an application to suspend a warrant of possession pending permission to appeal the underlying insolvency claim.
  • Resisted a winding-up petition against a Northern Irish company on jurisdictional grounds

Represented an IVA supervisor seeking a bankruptcy order three years after the IVA’s expiry.

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 (ongoing).
  • 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 (ongoing).
  • 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 (ongoing).
  • Advising a cohabitee facing allegations they tampered with the beneficial interest provisions in a trust deed and/or forged signatures on the deed and various other contemporaneous documents (ongoing).
  • Struck out a personal guarantor’s defence which alleged their signature was forged 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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