Commercial Property Update (3 hours)

This course updates the busy practitioner on a huge range of recent and pending commercial property law and practice changes. All recent cases and legislative changes are reviewed, as are the implications of legal practice and policy changes, and the changing economic climate.

Topics will include:

• Contracts for sale and commercial leases in a downturn – enforcing or terminating sale and purchase agreements; rights of rescission; serving valid completion notices; forfeiting (or returning?) contract deposits; escaping from leases by break or surrender (or frustrating the escape); enforcing guarantees; rescheduling rent payment dates; dealing with tenant insolvency (especially administration and voluntary arrangements and the ability to get rent paid)
• Complying with formalities in property transactions – ensuring a contract is properly signed; executing deeds in the light of the Mercury Tax case and the ‘virtual closing’ protocol; varying contracts; varying leases; the use of side letters in sales and leases; informal leases and the dangers of undocumented possession
• Land Registry developments (early completion policy, identification rules, increase in property fraud, guidance on amending deeds)
• Landlord and tenant update (including cases on assigning, sub-letting, service charge, insurance and rent review, and recent cases on 1954 Act contracting-out and a review of the problems the process creates)
• Climate change – drafting points relating to the Carbon Reduction Commitment and the move towards greener leases; transactional implications of rules relating to EPCs; the need for DECs
• Recent legislation – including changes to the law on perpetuities; Community Infrastructure Levy; SDLT and VAT developments
• Developing land – cases and practice points relating to the acquisition of land conditionally upon planning; the enforcement of positive obligations; rights of way and rights for services; enforcing restrictive covenants; drafting overage clauses, and the problem of the village green

Course Dates

12/10/2012 Nottingham

09:30 - 12:45 Venue Information

Natasha Dunn 
is an Associate Professor of Real Estate in the Professional Development Division at the College of Law. She qualified in the City and then spent a further 10 years in practice specialising in commercial real estate. She regularly contributes to various journals and websites on a wide range of commercial real estate topics and is a very experienced practitioner, author and speaker.