We are well-versed in a wide range of property-related disputes involving unregistered easements, registered titles and caveats, mortgages, building agreements and State leases, short-term residential and commercial leases, payment claims under the Security of Payment Act, building and construction defects, completion delays and recovery of stake-holding monies under Housing Developers Rules standard-form contracts.
Our team has experience representing clients in complex trust claims involving common intention constructive trusts and resulting trusts, and in advising clients on interim measures such as freezing injunctions and interim proprietary injunctions.
Representative cases
- Appeared as instructed counsel before the Court of Appeal in a landmark case definitively interpreting whether or not a common intention constructive trust can arise in favour of individuals entitled to HDB shophouse property: reported in Ong Chai Soon v Ong Chai Koon and others [2022] SGCA 36.
- Successfully acted for an individual in the High Court to specifically enforce a settlement agreement for the transfer of two residential properties valued at S$2 million (2021).
- Successfully acted for an execution creditor in the Court of Appeal to obtain priority to the sale proceeds arising from a mortgagee sale of immovable property of the judgment debtor. Specifically, the Court of Appeal had the occasion to review and clarify the law and the enforcement procedure that is applicable to the seizure and sale of registered land: reported in Singapore Air Charter Pte Ltd v Peter Low & Choo LLC and another [2020] 2 SLR 1399; Peter Low & Choo LLC v Singapore Air Charter Pte Ltd and another [2019] SGHC 89; Peter Low LLC v Higgins, Danial Patrick [2017] SGHCR 18.
- Advised and represented the developer of an up-market residential strata development in a dispute involving the priorities of various crossclaims asserted by interested parties that were premised on third-party freezing injunction, equitable mortgages, registered caveats, and an order of seizure pursuant to the Criminal Procedure Code for alleged contraventions of the Residential Property Act. Successfully acted for the developer in the High Court to intervene and vary the freezing injunction in the client’s favour (2018).
- Successfully acted for SMRT Alpha Pte Ltd against its former tenant in the High Court and Court of Appeal for breach of the tenancy agreement with loss of rental income and other loss and damage assessed at S$2.7 million and resisting the tenant’s counterclaim for fraudulent misrepresentation. This matter is notable because the Court found that the tenant had by its conduct affirmed the lease notwithstanding a misrepresentation that was made during the lease negotiation and the tenant was accordingly not entitled to rescind the lease: reported in Strait Colonies Pte Ltd v SMRT Alpha Pte Ltd [2018] 2 SLR 441; SMRT Alpha Pte Ltd v Strait Colonies Pte Ltd [2017] SGHC 243.