(Intermediate)
Theme: Land acquisition, appropriation and disposal
2 October 2018, 9.30am registration (9.45am start) – 1.00pm (followed by lunch) Browne Jacobson Nottingham, (with Video Conferencing Equipment to Browne Jacobson’s offices in Birmingham and London)
Please note we offer the option to attend this course via video conference at another of our offices to make it accessible to as many EM Lawshare members as possible. We do our best to deliver the best experience we can with the technology we have, but inevitably it may not be as effective as attending the course in person. We always appreciate your feedback and make improvements if we can.
Presented by Browne Jacobson
Course overview
Local Authorities are increasingly active in the commercial property investment market for a variety of purposes – whether for wider regeneration, development and/or investment purposes – and so they need to be aware of the pitfalls of operating in this market, as well as ensuring they comply with their statutory framework.
Where property is currently occupied by tenants, or is intended to be let, there are additional issues that a purchaser’s solicitor will need to address, and yet further points that will need to be considered where the purchaser is a local authority.
In this seminar we’ll contrast investment property acquisitions with purchases of operational property, consider any additional due diligence requirements (including leasehold management and property taxation), and consider the contractual and practical/commercial issues that commonly arise.
We’ll also address relevant public law aspects including local authority powers and constraints (including the power to borrow money to invest, and where using a corporate vehicle may be appropriate).
Suitable audience:
All qualified lawyers and surveyors (but should also be useful for those en route to qualification) and other local authority officers keen to develop their understanding of the legal issues and the role played by their solicitors.
Suitable audience: All local authority lawyers and those instructing them in relation to the acquisition of property currently let to tenants (or proposed to be) and the disposal of similar properties.
Overview and topics to be covered include:
• Investment property acquisitions compared with other property purchases
• Legal powers of local authorities
• Valuation and governance
• Relevant property taxes-SDLT and VAT treatment
• Due diligence-existing leases and leasehold management
• Transactional documentation-heads of terms, contract, transfer etc.-common issues, practical guidance, contract amendments
• Relevant case law and legislation
Interactive elements
The seminar will be built around a fictional (but plausible!) case study.
We’ll introduce the seminar with a set of heads of terms for a proposed acquisition and invite delegates to consider what questions they may want to ask before moving on to consider some of the key aspects and issues likely to need to be considered.
Using a draft sale and purchase agreement and transfer prepared by a vendor’s solicitor (and based upon a more fully developed set of heads of terms) we’ll then consider suitable drafting amendments that might be made and which of those are “must haves” or “nice to get if we can” and consider the wider practical and commercial points that will be relevant.
Duration: Half a day (3 training hours) including lunch
Competencies
This course will cover:
B4 Draft documents
B6 Negotiation
C1 Communicate clearly and effectively
D Managing themselves and their own work
Presenter profiles:
Kassra Powles, Browne Jacobson is an associate in our development and housing team. He specialises in development and investment acquisitions and disposals for both public and private sector clients, including site acquisition, pre-letting arrangements and plot disposals.
Andrew Noble, Browne Jacobson is a partner in our tax team, and is also a Chartered Tax Adviser. His practice area includes corporate and real estate tax matters among others, and he regularly advises clients in the public sector, including local authorities, NHS bodies and schools.
Neil Walker, Browne Jacobson is a Legal Director in our public sector property practice and has over 20 years’ experience in advising clients on commercial property acquisition, development and disposal matters. Neil is our most senior public sector property law specialist and regularly delivers seminars and training events to clients and contacts as well as in-house training. In the last 18 months he’s advised a number of local authority clients on the acquisition of a variety of investment properties including shopping centres, office buildings and car parks and worked on a number of regeneration and other local authority led development projects.
Peter Ware, Browne Jacobson specialises in complex procurement, shared services, outsourcing and public sector joint ventures. Prior to joining Browne Jacobson, Peter worked as a special projects adviser for Nottinghamshire County Council. His extensive knowledge of local authority law and his time leading major projects has given experience in advising all types of public bodies on commercial matters, in particular their public procurement, PPP and commercial work. He is also membership and finance secretary of the Procurement Lawyers Association and a regular public speaker.