Amanda Gourlay

Overview

Amanda accepts instructions on all matters relating to residential leasehold management. She is authorised to accept instructions directly from the public under the Bar’s direct public access scheme.

Her experience covers all jurisdictions where those issues are litigated, from the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to the Supreme Court, where she was junior counsel in First Port Property Services Ltd v Settlers Court RTM Co Ltd [2022] UKSC 1, the first case on the right to manage to reach the Supreme Court.

Amanda’s expertise has been recognised by UK Chambers and Partners and the Legal 500. She has been described as:

“… brilliant and a safe pair of hands.”

“a real specialist in service charge work.”

“technically very capable …”

“[having] an encyclopaedic knowledge of residential service charge issues and is very practical and commercially-minded.”

“extremely able, conscientious, enthusiastic, and someone with excellent attention to detail.”

Between 2017 and 2018, she spent two days a week in the Department for Leasehold, Commonhold and Rentcharges in the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, bringing her experience and expertise to the Department’s review of service charges and property management, including Lord Richard Best’s report into the regulation of property agents.

She has twice given evidence to Parliament, most recently to the Public Bill Committee in January 2024 on the proposed service charge reforms in the then Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.

Her Substack website, Law & Lease, is a well-known resource for reported cases and webinars, designed to simplify the law and to make it accessible to everyone. The webinars, for which there is a small charge, are the cornerstone of her social responsibility project supporting the vulnerable and homeless.

Amanda is a Fellow of The Property Institute and writes a monthly case law update for the Institute’s newsletter.

She returns to private practice after two years as in house Counsel at a firm specialising in residential leasehold issues.

Expertise

Amanda is known for her specialist knowledge and experience on service charges, the right to manage and building safety.

She is regularly asked to advise and represent clients seeking the appointment of a manager under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987, including by a large group of leaseholders at a significant high-profile development in London.

She represented the leaseholders in the First-tier Tribunal in the Citiscape litigation, one of the first pre-Building Safety Act cases on leaseholder liability to meet the cost of remediating building safety defects.

Recent right to manage work has included an appearance in the Court of Appeal on the question of whether a Right to Manage Company is entitled to apply to the Tribunal for a determination that there has been a breach of covenant.

She has a particular interest in the recoverability of legal costs in the Tribunals, a question that engaged Martin Rodger KC, Deputy President of the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber), sitting as a Judge of the County Court, in John Romans Park Homes Ltd v Hancock, unrep, 17 October 2019, and was later cited with approval in the Court of Appeal in LB Tower Hamlets v Khan [2022] EWCA Civ 831.

Reported cases

• Benwell Road RTM Co Ltd v Davies [2025] EWCA Civ 368 
• G&A Gorrara Ltd v Kenilworth Court Block E RTM Co Ltd [2024] UKUT 81 (LC) 
• Firstport Property Services Ltd v Various Leaseholders, Switch House [2023] UKUT 219 (LC) 
• Eastpoint Block A RTM Co Ltd v Otubaga [2023] EWCA Civ 879 25 Jul 2023
• G&A Gorrara Ltd v Kenilworth Court Block E RTM Co Ltd [2022] UKUT 90 (LC) 
• FirstPort Property Services Ltd v Settlers Court RTM Co Ltd [2022] UKSC 1 
• Southwark LBC v Royce [2019] UKUT 331 (LC) 
• FirstPort Property Services Ltd v Leaseholders at Citiscape, Croydon [2018] 3 WLUK 885 
• Skelton v DBS Homes (Kings Hill) Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 1139 
• Octagon Overseas Ltd v Coates [2017] EWHC 877 (Ch) 
• Oliver v Sheffield City Council [2017] EWCA Civ 225
• Primeview Developments Ltd v Ahmed [2017] UKUT 57 (LC)
• Cain v Islington LBC [2015] UKUT 542 (LC) 
• Chowdhury v Bramerton Management Co Ltd [2014] UKUT 260 (LC) 
• Kolup Investments Ltd v Al-Dhahir [2013] UKUT 136 (LC) 
• Hackney LBC v Akhondi [2012] UKUT 439 (LC) 
• Church Commissioners for England v Koyale Enterprises Inc, County Court (Central London) [2011] 9 WLUK 478 

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