Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Conway v Conway: proprietary estoppel cannot secure specific performance of land sale void under s 2 LP(MP)A 1989; equitable compensation remitted (England and Wales)

Published on: 02 February 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Private Client expert

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Article summary

Conway v Conway and another [2025] EWHC 33314 (Ch)

What was the background?

In March 2019, the parties reached a verbal understanding for the respondents to purchase the appellant’s barn for £150,000 sterling. Solicitors were engaged to formalise the transfer, but talks collapsed over a contentious provision—whether the appellant retained a call option to re-purchase the barn from the respondents. It was accepted by both sides that the price was never paid to the appellant, and that the respondents had gone into occupation and undertaken substantial renovation and refurbishment works. Following the collapse of negotiations, the appellant sought declaratory relief that the respondents held no proprietary interest in the barn and also an injunction restraining further access. The respondents, relying solely and entirely on proprietary estoppel, issued a counterclaim seeking an order compelling transfer of the barn to them on the terms of the asserted oral arrangement, expressly omitting any buy-back option from those terms...

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