Alistair Cantor

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Alistair Cantor specialises in commercial, property and housing law. He undertakes a broad range of drafting, advisory and advocacy work for private litigants and public authorities. He is a member of Cornerstone Climate, Chambers’ cross-disciplinary practice group for climate litigation and advice.

Alistair began his career at UBS Investment Bank, before being called to the Bar in 2011. He combines his legal acumen with sound commercial expertise when advising his clients.

Alistair’s practice has three core aspects:

Commercial disputes and enforcement – he has particular expertise in cases involving high-value assets, cross-border judgments and complex contractual or corporate claims, with instructions ranging from unfair prejudice petitions and director’s duties to major professional negligence actions. He has a niche specialism in the law of gambling.
Property litigation and advisory work – his experience spans landlord and tenant disputes, trusts of land, boundary disputes, professional negligence, and high-value contractual interpretation. He has also developed a unique specialism in Welsh landlord and tenant law, advising extensively on the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 and preparing large-scale suites of compliant tenancy and occupation contracts.
Housing law – he acts for both landlords and tenants in contentious and non-contentious matters, including homelessness, allocation, disrepair, anti-social behaviour, and the regulatory obligations of housing providers. His work increasingly lies at the intersection of housing, commercial and real estate disputes, often involving particularly sensitive issues for local authorities and social landlords.

Expertise

Commercial Disputes
- Overview
- News
Alistair is experienced in dealing with a wide variety of commercial disputes, and in personal and corporate insolvency. His expertise includes unfair prejudice petitions, director’s duties under the Companies Act, partnership disputes, applications for injunctive relief, and a broad range of contractual claims. He regularly drafts statements of case and written submissions in complex actions proceeding in the Business and Property Courts. The quality of his drafting is such that he has been instructed on multiple occasions to provide non-contentious drafting and advice in relation to contractual documentation.

He is presently instructed by the Dobbs Review, the independent review into the HBOS Reading Fraud instructed by Lloyds Banking Group.

He has particular specialisms in the law of gambling, and in enforcement law, including complex enforcement actions against high value and unique assets (such as jumbo jets and antiquities) and involving foreign judgments and instruments.

Examples of Alistair’s past and ongoing work in this field includes:
- Donnellan v Ward [2024] EWHC 2304 (Ch): Led by Philip Coppel KC, Alistair acted as junior counsel in the three week trial of three conjoined sets of proceedings, featuring complex legal and factual disputes over the existence of a partnership, the beneficial ownership of multiple valuable properties, and the validity of an arbitration award.
- Representing the claimant in a claim in the King’s Bench Division against HM Customs & Excise in relation to the destruction of seized goods, valued at c. £7 million.
- Led by Philip Coppel KC, drafting particulars of claim in a high value professional negligence claim brought against a major UK law firm.
- Drafting particulars of claim for breach of a service level agreement for damages > £1 million.
- Acting for a major gambling operator on multiple occasions in relation to claims brought against it for the return of gambling losses, raising complex legal questions of illegality, licensing, and consumer rights.
- Advising on the viability of potential group litigation actions under s90A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
- Representing the company concerned by a complex unfair prejudice petition with an international aspect.
- Drafting complex Points of Defence in an unfair prejudice petition raising numerous allegations including misappropriation of company assets and diversion of income.
- Drafting an unfair prejudice petition on behalf of a shareholder regarding a tech start-up, prompting an advantageous settlement at an early stage.
- Acting for the defendant to a claim for specific performance of an alleged oral agreement to grant a major shareholding in a valuable company.
- Corporate and personal insolvency, including: winding up and bankruptcy petitions; validation orders; applications to set aside statutory demands and to restrain presentation of winding up petitions; annulments; adjustment of prior transactions; and applications for possession and sale of property.
- Consumer credit, including in respect of ‘unfair relationships’ under s140A CCA 1974.
- Claims for misrepresentation, fraud and deceit.
- Drafting standard contracts and terms and conditions for a large vocational college, including ensuring compliance with consumer credit legislation.
- Judgment handed down in first post-PACCAR litigation funding dispute01 Nov 2023
Property
- Overview
Alistair has practised in property since the outset of his legal career and has gained wide-ranging experience in all types of disputes in the County Court, High Court, and Residential Property and Land Registration Chambers of the First-Tier Tribunal. His experience in the field includes: residential and commercial landlord and tenant; possession claims; civil fraud, misrepresentation and rescission; rent arrears and debt claims; forfeiture; trusts over land, co-ownership and ToLATA claims; service charge disputes; boundary disputes; nuisance; estate agency contracts and regulation; and dilapidations claims.

He currently writes as a specialist in property law for LexisNexis’ ‘Meet The Experts’ service and is authoring a textbook for Bloomsbury on joint ownership of property.

Alistair has a particular specialism in Welsh landlord & tenant law. Over the course of 2022 and 2023, he undertook a major project of non-contentious drafting on behalf of a large number of landlords holding property in Wales, preparing ‘occupation contracts’ compliant with the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 for use in a wide range of contexts. These instructions were unparalleled in their breadth and complexity. As a result, Alistair has an expert knowledge of the legislation concerned and has acquired a unique level of experience of non-contentious drafting of occupation contracts / tenancy agreements.

His past work in this field includes:
- Bexley LBC v London & Quadrant Housing Trust [2025] HLR 19; [2024] EWHC 3295 (Ch): Led by Kelvin Eldridge KC, Alistair appeared as junior counsel for the Claimant in a substantial dispute concerning the proper interpretation of a complex suite of contracts dating from the late 1990s effecting a transfer of thousands of social homes to a housing association.
- Mayor and Burgesses of the Brent London Borough Council and another v Malvern Mews Tenants Association Ltd [2020] All ER (D) 192 (Apr); [2020] EWHC 1024 (Ch): Alistair represented the successful respondent, a residents’ association, in a High Court appeal against a ‘negative declaration’. The case raised an important point as to evidential burdens in claims for negative declarations as to the absence of legal rights.
- Advising in relation to liabilities for building defects arising on a large multi-use structure with multiple leases in place.
- Acting at trial for the respondent in a FTT (Land Registration) dispute as to the nature of a ‘common intention’ trust over land, the beneficial interests held under it, and the effect of charging orders on said interests.
- Advising on the likely nature of a ‘common intention’ trust of co-owned land, the quantification of the respective interests under it and the equitable accounting of respective contributions to the property.
- Acting for the claimant in a claim for a declaration as to and possession of a co-owned property held on trust, with associated claims for occupation rent and equitable accounting.
- Property-related professional negligence, including conveyancers, and managing agents.
- Adverse possession and estoppel.
- Providing non-contentious advice to a major private landlord on its standard tenancy documents and procedures.
- Dilapidations.
- Advising on the use of the Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery process under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007.
Housing
- Overview
- News
Alistair has garnered extensive experience within his practice in housing, acting for both landlords and tenants. He has a keen understanding of the challenges and pressures faced by housing litigants. Increasingly, the housing work he undertakes falls at the intersection of housing, commercial and real estate disputes, acting for social landlords in non-contentious contexts or substantial disputes carrying particularly acute sensitivities or liabilities.

He has a particular specialism in Welsh housing law, having spent much of 2022 and 2023 drafting occupation contracts for a wide range of social housing providers with properties in Wales. He has an expert knowledge of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 and associated issues.

His expertise and past work encompasses:
- Local authority decision-making in the County Court and via judicial review, including proceedings on homelessness and allocation.
- Housing conditions claims, extending to proceedings under the Environmental Protection Act, disrepair and fitness for human habitation.
- Anti-social behaviour proceedings including applications for injunctions at the interim, final and committal stages.
- Possession claims, including those raising Equality Act and public law defences.
- Tenancy fraud and the right-to-buy and right-to-acquire.
- The non-contentious drafting of occupation contracts, tenancy agreements and managing agency contracts.
- Licensing and enforcement under the Housing Act 2004 including applications for rent repayment orders and prosecutions in the magistrates’ court.