Real Estate & Construction

Instructing property guardians to occupy a vacant building may break the law if an HMO licence is not obtained following a ruling in the case of Global 100 Ltd v Jimenez and others.

In uncertain times, business tenants will look to minimise their property commitments in order to reduce costs. One of their options may be to exercise a break in a lease if such an option is included. However, case law has demonstrated the importance of tenants (and landlords) strictly complying with any conditions that are attached to a break clause. Often, this includes giving a landlord vacant possession, following the exercise of a tenant’s break notice. Failure to do so can be costly and have drastic consequences for a tenant; any failure to comply with a condition is likely to invalidate the break, resulting in the lease continuing for the remainder of the original term.

We are pleased to announce that Simon Robinson has joined our Real Estate and Construction team as a Partner, with effect from today.

The Government has for some time promised to introduce a register requiring overseas entities holding UK property to identify its beneficial owners, in its effort to increase transparency in UK property ownership and reduce the attraction of the UK’s property market to money launderers. Indeed, we last blogged about the potential overseas entities register in May 2019. With UK-based entities subject to strict information-sharing requirements since 2016 (in the form of the register of People with Significant Control or “PSC Register”), many have been calling for an equivalent overseas entities register to be implemented to provide a way of tracking overseas owners who ultimately own and control UK land.

Under s.82 of the Coronavirus Act 2020, a moratorium has been imposed on all landlords in England who have been prevented form forfeiting commercial leases on grounds of arrears with effect from 26 March 2020. Those restrictions are currently due to come to an end on 25 March 2022.

In March 2021 Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his very first Tweet as an NFT for $2.9 million. Around the same time the Land Registry ran a series of pilots to explore the possibility of using blockchain technology, such as NFTs, to provide some much needed modernisation and efficiency to the property buying process. 

Blue plaques can be found on buildings throughout London marking where prominent historical figures have lived and worked.  The scheme was founded in 1866 and is now run by English Heritage. Similar schemes are run outside of London by local authorities and organisations. 

The Housing Secretary has detailed the government’s plan to “reset” its approach to building safety in order to “protect leaseholders and make wealthy developers and companies pay to fix the cladding crisis”.

In an increasingly digital world, real estate transactions have become a major target for fraudsters in recent years, with figures showing that property fraud has cost the UK Land Registry more than £70 million over the past 14 years. In 2020 alone, the Land Registry paid out £3.5million in compensation for fraud related cases. Despite advances in security enhancements and rules and regulations, the real estate sector has seen some of the largest instances of fraud, more so than any other industry, and with criminals becoming ever more imaginative this shows no sign of changing.  

If you’re looking to buy a house which is listed, it will no doubt be a unique and interesting property full of character. However, you are right to be aware that the fact it is listed means there are additional controls over any works to the property

As you’ll be aware from some of our previous articles, energy efficiency is a hot topic in the property world, and more changes are on their way regarding the minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) for commercial properties in the UK.

Law firm Kingsley Napley LLP is pleased to announce that Claire Lamkin is joining its Real Estate team as a Partner, with effect from this week.

With Extinction Rebellion taking to the streets this week for a city-wide protest, it would appear that beyond the pandemic, environment and sustainability will be the key issue that the UK is faced with. Within the rented housing market there are a number of ways in which landlords and tenants can create more environmentally friendly properties, including entering into a green lease.

On 16 March 2020 Number 10 advised those living in the UK against “non-essential travel” in order to curb the growing outbreak of Coronavirus. This encouraged many office-based businesses to communicate to their employees that they should work from home until further notice. 

The UK is currently facing a housing crisis. Looking at London in particular, the property market has not been able to support the exponential growth of residents in the capital. 

A Director at the National Crime Agency recently voiced concern about crypto assets being used to fund property purchases in the UK. The NCA’s Nigel Leary was quoted by The Times as saying: “Anything purchased with crypto assets I’d be slightly sceptical about. I’d like to see why they’re being done in that way and what the requirement is for that anonymity, and why it needed to be done in a crypto transaction.”

The price of Bitcoin and other crypto assets is notoriously unstable. Whether caused by a cryptic crypto related tweet from a billionaire inventor, or a crypto crackdown being announced by regulators of the world’s second largest economy, the rise and fall of crypto assets continues to prove that crypto can be risky business.

Most of us have spent the last few months largely confined to our homes, as we do our bit to follow the “stay home” guidance and fight the pandemic. Whilst every household is different, most will attest to the stresses and strains that have evolved from not leaving the house, home-schooling, working from home, working from home whilst home-schooling or being furloughed and unable to go to work. 

As you will be aware from our earlier blog, the government introduced a Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) holiday which began on 8th July 2020 and ends on 31st March 2021.

The Government has published the most recent Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 (“the Regulations”), taking us into a second lockdown, which will likely remind buyers and sellers of the months in which they could not view houses and building sites, and added complications to exchanging contracts, or completing  transactions.