This post was written by George Brown, Mark Hargreaves and Emma Parsons
Can the Bribery Bill, which we are told will become law before the General Election, affect property investors, agents and buyers?
Continue Reading...This post was written by Clare Whitaker, Katherine Campbell and Siobhan Hayes.
A decision by the High Court in December has strengthened the position of landlords who sometimes do not get paid during the administration even where the administrator is running the business from the property.
Continue Reading...This post was written by Siobhan Hayes and Richard Nicoll.
Every Tenant’s worst nightmare is to miss a break date in a Lease of unwanted space! With rental demand currently weak, Landlords are likely to take any technical point they can to defeat a Tenant’s break notice and the rental void it would trigger.
Often the decision to serve break notices is left until close to the deadline and with the current disruptions caused by the post strike the risks of slip ups are increased. Tenants need to plan ahead to avoid last minute panics. Also because of the law relating to service, Landlords may not be able to assume that non receipt of a formal notice by the deadline means that the lease continues.
Continue Reading...This post was written by Siobhan Hayes and Clare Whitaker.
We have spent a lot of time thinking about landlords being affected by tenants going into administration over the last year. This posting is about a court case where the landlord’s administrators were trying to postpone the tenant’s application to Court for the grant of a new tenancy under the 1954 Act.
The administrators failed in their attempts to defer the 1954 Act proceedings even though it severely affected the value of the property in question and the amount that was going to be paid out to the secured creditor.
Continue Reading...This post was written by Siobhan Hayes and Lesley Davey.
At the beginning of October the UK’s Competition Commission (CC) recommended to Government that introduces as “competition test” in planning decisions for large grocery stores. This follows on from the CC’s 2008 supermarkets’ investigation where it found that the planning regime helped larger supermarkets restrict competition in local markets. Whether or not the Government takes up the recommendation remains to be seen, however the CC’s investigation has also brought all land agreements under the competition law spotlight.
The Government is currently consulting on whether land agreements generally should continue to be exempt from competition law. At the time the exemption was introduced it was thought that the majority of land agreements would not have a negative impact on competition in markets. However the CC’s supermarkets’ investigation highlighted that provisions in land agreements could impact on competition. If the exemption is removed, landlords and tenants would have to review carefully provisions that we currently think of as quite usual to ensure they do not breach competition law.
This posting considers what effect a removal of the exemption would have on landlords and tenants?
Continue Reading...This post was written by Siobhan Hayes and Katherine Campbell.
This week we have seen the headlines about the Focus DIY Corporate Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). It is reported that landlords have accepted the CVA and that will enable Focus to continue a significant part of the business and to retain a large number of jobs. Welcome news in many respects.
CVAs can have a significant impact on a property investment so this posting considers how CVAs work and their impact on leases?
Continue Reading...This post was written by Siobhan Hayes and Katherine Campbell.
Many landlords use an old remedy to recover unpaid rent from sub-tenants where tenants have gone into default. This is set out in Section 6 of the Law of Distress Amendment Act 1908. The remedy pre-dates the rescue culture intended by administration by nearly a century. Given the increasing number of tenant companies in administration, landlords are asking whether the old Section 6 right survives the moratorium that administration gives to the administrator whilst he tries to restructure or sell the company or its business.
This is an area where there is some legal debate at present. We are of the opinion that landlords can use this remedy but it is untested by case law.
Continue Reading...This post was written by Katherine Campbell and Siobhan Hayes.
Tenants exercising break clauses in their leases are creating plenty of work in the property disputes field at the moment. Many tenants who have the opportunity to break the term of their lease are seizing it, and landlords in return want to find any way possible to challenge the validity of those notices. This posting identifies some of the topics arising on lease breaks.
Continue Reading...Welcome to The Real Estate Legal Update from Reed Smith's Real Estate Group based in London!
We know that some of you are clients of Reed Smith, and have been pointed to the blog because the lawyers with whom you work suggested it would be of interest. We hope this is a useful resource for you, and if you have ideas for the blog that would help you, then please do contact us.
We know that some of you found us through Google or another search engine, and have not worked with us in the past. We, of course, hope that you will do so in the future, and invite you to contact any member of our group.
However you found us, we hope you will find our updates useful. We plan to update this blog regularly with our latest thoughts on the impact of changing real estate law in England and Wales on the commercial property market. We will review case law, statute, and regulation from the perspective of landlords, tenants, owner occupiers, lenders and developers.
Please go ahead and browse, and as we said, don't hesitate to drop us a line with suggestions about how we can make this site more useful to you.
This post was written by Siobhan Hayes and Richard Nicoll.
Landlords/investors involved in selling or refinancing tenanted properties may need to carry out intensive environmental tests to satisfy the buyer/lender. Can landlords do these without the tenant’s co-operation, for which a tenant may seek a high price? Leases of commercial property reserve specific rights of entry for landlords. Can these be exercised to allow an intrusive environmental investigation during the lifetime of a lease whilst a tenant is in occupation? Without an express reservation, it is highly unlikely that any commercial property lease would be interpreted to permit an environmental survey that would disrupt the tenant from carrying out its normal business.
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