XXIV Old Buildings is delighted to support the Cambridge Private Law Centre (CPLC) annual lecture for 2026.
On Friday 6 March at 5.30pm the CPLC will be hosting Professor Susan Bright (University of Oxford) to deliver The XXIV Old Buildings Lecture on ‘New Housing, Old Rules: Can Land Law Keep up?’
In recent years, more than 80% of new housing estates developed by large housebuilders include amenities that are not adopted by the relevant statutory bodies. As a result, roads, public play areas, drainage systems, and other shared facilities are maintained by private management companies, with the costs passed on to homeowners. Yet, as Lord Templeman famously observed in Rhone v Stephens (1994), every student of real property law learns at an early stage that positive covenants affecting freehold land do not run with the land and are enforceable only against the original covenantor. How, then, are successive homeowners made to contribute to these ongoing obligations?
This lecture examines the ‘ways and means’ employed by conveyancers to ensure that such covenants bind successors in title and evaluates whether these mechanisms achieve satisfactory outcomes, both in terms of legal effectiveness and their broader implications for contemporary notions of homeownership.
A drinks reception will be held in the Atrium afterwards from 6:30pm. This event is free to attend, but registration is required. To register for this event, please click here.
