Law firm flags legal fallout facing property owners after Stourbridge fires and record 2026 wildfire season.
Following the recent wildfires across the UK, including the blaze near Stourbridge that destroyed homes and forced evacuations in August 2026, a property litigator is warning that landlords, tenants and neighbouring property owners are likely to face a wave of legal disputes in the aftermath.
Peter Humpherson, a property dispute solicitor at Higgs LLP, which acts for commercial and residential landlords and tenants nationally, says fire damage frequently creates disputes long after the immediate emergency has passed.
"When a fire damages a home or business premises, the physical rebuild is often the easier part," said Humpherson. "What follows is usually a dispute about who is responsible for what, whether that's a landlord and tenant disagreeing over repairing obligations, a business tenant trying to get out of a lease because their premises are unusable, or neighbours arguing over how a fire spread from one garden or boundary to another."
2026 is shaping up to be one of the most severe wildfire seasons on record in the UK, following even more destructive wildfire seasons in 2022 and 2025, each breaking records set the year before. As dry conditions become a more regular feature of UK summers, Humpherson says disputes of this kind are likely to become more common rather than remaining a rare, one-off issue.
Humpherson expects to see disputes arise between landlords and tenants over repairing obligations after fire damage to a rented home, as well as disagreements over rent suspension or abatement where a let property has been left uninhabitable.
In a commercial property setting, Humpherson notes that many leases already treat fire as an insured risk, meaning an accidental fire doesn't always become a straightforward dispute between landlord and tenant. Instead, insurers are often involved from an early stage, and disputes can arise over reinstatement costs, service charge liabilities, and the rights surrounding break clauses, once the insurance position has been established. If the premises are destroyed or severely damaged, the lease could also be deemed at an end in any event.
Fire damage can further complicate dilapidation claims when landlords and outgoing tenants disagree over the standard of repair required at the end of a lease.
Humpherson is encouraging landlords and tenants affected by fire damage to seek early legal advice, both to understand their rights and obligations and to avoid disputes escalating unnecessarily.
"The properties affected this summer span everything from family homes to commercial units," he added. "In our experience, the disputes that end up in litigation are very often the ones where nobody sought advice early enough to head off the disagreement in the first place."
