Real estate law

Property is the slowest-moving asset a business owns and the one most likely to outlast the decisions made about it. A lease signed for premises that suited the company five years ago still governs the rent, the repairs and the exit; a boundary agreed informally between two owners becomes a problem for whoever buys next. Land carries its history forward, and that history is largely a legal one.

Real estate law covers how rights over land and buildings are created, transferred, shared and ended — and the disputes that follow when two people believe they hold the same right:

• the rules on buying and selling, and on the point at which risk actually passes;
• the rules on title, registration and the searches that reveal what a seller did not mention;
• the rules on leases — duration, rent review, repair obligations and the right to renew;
• the rules on ending a lease early, and what a departing or remaining party owes;
• the rules on mortgages, charges and the security a lender takes over property;
• the rules on co-ownership, shared parts and how decisions are made between owners;
• the rules on easements, rights of way and what a neighbour may or may not do;
• the rules on planning, permitted use and what happens when a building is used for something else;
• the rules on development, off-plan purchase and the guarantees that attach to new construction.

Our lawyers can support you in all these areas of law.