By Richard Willcox

The Upper Tribunal has, for the first time, dismissed a reference to it under paragraph 20 of the Code and ruled that a Code Agreement can only be sought from a person who is the ‘occupier’ of land.

Operators have been keen to make use of the powers granted to them by the new Code and we have already seen a significant number of paragraph 20 notices being served on landowners, demanding the grant of new agreements, with follow-up references to the Tribunal becoming increasingly common.