10 Questions, Daylight Protect

The phrase "no win, no fee" hides more than it reveals: two rights of light services can use identical words and leave you with completely different exposure if the claim fails. Before signing with anyone, including us, put these ten questions in writing and keep the answers.

• The single most important question is about losing, not winning: if the claim fails, who pays the developer's legal costs?
• "No fee" often means only the company's own fee. Expert surveyor reports, barristers and court fees can sit outside the promise unless the paperwork says otherwise.
• Verbal assurances are worth nothing in this field. Every answer below should arrive in writing before your case begins.

1. If the claim fails, am I protected from the other side's costs?

This is the question that separates marketing from a real structure. Rights of light disputes can escalate to litigation, and the loser in litigation is ordinarily ordered to pay a large share of the winner's costs. Against a developer's legal team, that can be a sum that dwarfs the claim itself. Some services leave that risk silently with you. Ask directly: if this claim is unsuccessful, who pays the developer's costs, and where does your paperwork say so? The credible answer in this market is an insurance policy, included in the arrangement, that pays the developer's costs if the claim fails. The industry name is after the event insurance; what matters is that it exists and that you see it in writing. No insurance, or a vague answer, means you are carrying the heaviest risk in the case yourself.

2. Who pays the surveyor, barrister and court fees, win or lose?

A credible rights of light claim needs an independent specialist surveyor's analysis, solicitors, often counsel's opinion, and, if it goes the distance, court fees. These disbursements are real money whoever ultimately wins. Ask which of them are covered if the claim fails, and by what: insurance, the solicitor's own risk, or quietly you. Ask too what happens on a win: are the solicitor's charges and the expert costs taken from your damages, or recovered from the developer? Arrangements that quietly exclude disbursements convert a free service into an open-ended bill at the worst possible moment.

3. Is the whole arrangement set out in writing before the case starts?

Promises made on the phone do not survive contact with a difficult case. Everything that determines what you pay, and when, should exist on paper that you receive before the claim begins: the company's own agreement and fee, the solicitor's no win, no fee agreement, and the insurance position if the claim fails. If a company hesitates to put its model on paper, that hesitation is the answer.

4. What fee is charged, and is it calculated on the gross settlement?

A percentage on success is how this market pays for the work and the risk; the question is the number, the base, and the extras. Ask the percentage, ask whether VAT is added on top, ask whether an insurance premium also comes out of your damages and at what rate, and ask for a worked example at two or three settlement levels showing exactly what you would take home. A lower headline rate with unmentioned additions can cost you more than a higher rate honestly itemised. Only the worked example tells you which you are looking at.

5. Will independent solicitors be instructed in my name?

A claims company is not a law firm, and the strength of your claim ultimately rests on the legal team conducting it. Ask whether regulated, independent specialist solicitors will be formally retained by you, who they are, and what their no win, no fee agreement covers. Be wary of any arrangement where "legal input" is vague, in-house, or unnamed, and equally wary of anyone who blurs the line and lets you believe the claims company itself is your solicitor. It isn't, and a reputable one will say so unprompted.

6. Will the structure carry the claim all the way to injunction proceedings?

This question decides what your claim is worth, because the developer's team prices your claim against one variable above all others: whether you can credibly reach court. A service that can write letters but whose arrangements stop at negotiation is a bluff, and developers' advisers call bluffs for a living. Ask plainly: if the developer digs in, does the plan carry the claim all the way to court, and does the insurance still stand behind it at that stage? The answer determines whether the developer negotiates with you or merely manages you.

7. What is their track record, and can they substantiate it?

Anyone can claim success. Ask for substantiation: how many claims, what aggregate recoveries, over what period, and how those figures can be verified. Confidentiality genuinely restricts what this industry can publish about individual settlements, since most are released under confidential deeds, so the honest version of this answer is aggregate and verifiable rather than anecdotal. Daylight Protect's answer: more than £15,000,000 recovered in compensation for hundreds of clients across England and Wales, figures we are happy to substantiate.

8. What happens if I want to walk away, or if you walk away from me?

Circumstances change, and the exit terms tell you more about a model than the entrance does. Ask what you owe if you end the agreement after any cooling-off period: nothing, a cancellation fee, or costs incurred to date. Ask under what conditions the company or the solicitor can terminate, and what you are left holding in each case. There are legitimate answers to these questions; solicitors who carry your case at risk reasonably expect protection against a client who abandons a winnable claim. What you are listening for is whether the answers are explicit, written, and explained before you sign rather than discovered after.

9. How is everyone in the chain paid?

Follow the money through the whole arrangement, not just the headline fee. Ask what the company receives and from whom, including whether it is paid anything by the solicitor or any other party in connection with your case, and ask the solicitor what they are paid and by whom. Disclosed, success-contingent arrangements are normal in this market and align everyone behind one outcome: the best recoverable settlement. What you are checking is that everything is disclosed, that every payment depends on you winning, and that nobody in the chain earns from your case failing or settling cheap.

10. What exactly will I be asked to sign at the end?

Every successful claim ends in a deed of release, the permanent surrender of your right in exchange for the settlement. Ask to understand, at the outset, what that deed will and won't contain: confidentiality terms, whether it binds future owners (it will), whether anything beyond the right to light is being released, and who explains it to you before signature. The company's willingness to walk you through the end of the process before the beginning tells you most of what you need to know about the middle.

How does Daylight Protect answer these questions?

In writing, before your case begins. Specialist solicitors act for you on no win, no fee terms that carry the claim all the way to court if needed. Insurance included in the plan pays the expert bills, the court fees and the developer's costs if the claim fails, and its premium is only paid if you win. Our fee is a percentage of your compensation, itemised with VAT and shown to you in a worked example before you sign, and it is only paid if you win. If your claim is unsuccessful, you pay nothing. Put all ten questions to us; the answers come on paper.

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Daylight Protect is a litigation facilitator, not a firm of solicitors. We arrange and manage rights of light claims on a no win, no fee basis; legal work is carried out by independent specialist solicitors who act for you. Our fee is payable only if your claim succeeds.

Frequently asked questions

Is "no win, no fee" regulated?

The phrase itself is marketing, not a defined legal product, which is exactly why the questions above matter. What protects you is the set of written agreements behind the phrase, not the phrase.

A company sent me a letter saying my property is affected. How do they know?

Specialist firms identify potentially affected properties from planning applications and light modelling, the same techniques developers use, pointed the other way. The rights themselves typically arise once windows have enjoyed light for 20 years under the Prescription Act 1832, which is why older properties near new schemes are the usual recipients. The letter being unsolicited doesn't make it wrong; it makes the ten questions above essential before you commit to anyone. If the company that wrote to you is Your Right 2 Light, we have set out how their no win, no fee terms compare.

Should I just ask my own solicitor instead?

It's a legitimate route, with different economics: you typically carry costs and risk yourself unless your solicitor offers equivalent no win, no fee and insurance terms. The honest comparison between all three options is here: claims company vs your own surveyor vs solicitor.

This article is general information about rights of light in England and Wales, not legal advice on your specific circumstances.