Real Estate Legal Update : Global Corporate Real Estate Property and Planning Lawyer & Attorney : Reed Smith Law Firm

After the delays we commented on, the Ministry of Justice has finally published its guidance to the Bribery Act 2010 which will be fully in force from 1 July 2011. The guidance sets out procedures a commercial organisation should adopt to prevent bribery by those associated with it and contains some useful commentary. Whilst the legal status of the commentary is unclear it may help organisations in their decisions about sensitive subjects like how much corporate hospitality can be offered and to whom.

The guidance does not answer all the questions that commercial organisations have but contains some useful commentary. Our experts Rosanne Kay and Tom Webley have prepared a detailed alert that you can access if you follow the link here. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

This post was written by Marjorie Holmes and Siobhan Hayes.

We have seen our first court ruling on competition law issues in a lease renewal case and this is news given the uncertainties the real estate world is facing from 6 April 2011 when competition law starts to apply in full to all real estate transactions.

The case is a preliminary skirmish in a dispute about a lease renewal for the oil terminal at the Port of Immingham. Humber Oil and its landlord Associated British Ports (ABP) (both large scale commercial enterprises) are in competition with each other to provide the same service.   The case raises interesting issues for anyone in a dominant position in their market with the obvious examples being the owners of other ports, motorway service stations, airports and some shopping centre owners. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

This post was written by Harriet Morgan and Emma Parsons

From 6 April 2011, residential property with a consideration of over £1m will be subject to a higher SDLT rate of 5%.

This means that a purchaser whose transaction will complete on or after 6 April 2011 will find themselves paying more SDLT than if completion had taken place the day before!  This increase only applies to land which consists entirely of residential property.  It does not apply to non-residential or mixed used property.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link