Guardian schemes are an increasingly popular way for property owners to protect vacant premises against squatters and vandalism. Management companies arrange for individuals to live in such properties as licensees. However, the recent case of Camelot Property Management Limited and Camelot Guardian Management Limited v Roynon [2017] is a reminder that when it comes to […more]
In the final instalment of our Practical Property Guide series, we look at the difficulties that can arise where an owner of commercial property allows someone into occupation of their property, without documenting such occupation adequately. This is a common occurrence in practice and often happens when: a landlord does not want to incur the […more]
As a property litigator, when you get a message from a client you are not expecting to hear from asking you to call urgently at 7.30am on a Friday morning, you know that your day is not going to go the way you thought it was. “They’re back” was the message. Our client had bought a 3.5ha site […more]
On Friday I attended the launch of Hope Living, and assisted with a presentation by Phil Woolas and Jason Highet at the Conservative Party Spring Conference at the SSE Swalec stadium, Cardiff. ‘Hope’ is an initiative to relieve ‘bed-blocking’ by making available accommodation on a long term basis to Local Authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups […more]
We’re taking a brief hiatus from our Practical Property Guide, with the final instalment returning next week. In the meantime, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have recently published their long awaited guidance on the Energy Efficiency (Private Rented Property) (England and Wales) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/962) (MEES Regulations) and its application […more]
In October 2015 we considered the implications of a Court of Appeal case on business rates for buildings that were vacant and undergoing extensive refurbishment in our blog, Testing the Case for Business Rates. The appellant argued that the rateable value should be nominal because the relevant property could not be occupied. However, the Court of Appeal decided […more]
In the latest Practical Property Guide 2017 instalment, we are considering the benefit of ‘good’ Heads of Terms. Land agents or the parties themselves often produce the draft Heads of Terms for a deal, which in many cases follow a standard template or precedent that someone has seen or used before. However, as lawyers, we sometimes get asked […more]
Yes it’s here again. MIPIM. Is it really a year since the rain sheeted down and the price on the cocktail stick brollies from the street sellers trebled in 10 minutes?! Freeths are out there as usual and are flying out with Marketing Birmingham on Tuesday and back on Friday. The UK looks pretty well […more]
Indemnity Cover – What is it? Indemnity policies provide cover against defects relating to a property. They protect against the cost implications of a third party making a claim in relation to the relevant defect. Solicitors often use them on sales / purchases of property where a potential risk has been revealed (especially when time […more]
In this week’s edition of our Practical Property Guide series, we look at how to minimise the problems caused by the incorrect service of break notices. As well as complying with a number of other conditions, a break notice must clearly communicate to the other party that the person entitled to exercise the break is […more]