Commercial Property Law Update 2024

In this session, Bryan Johnston, Real Estate Litigation Partner at Dentons, will guide you through the key need to know commercial property cases of the last year. This will update your knowledge and bring you to the forefront of legal development to assist you in your practice. Key areas that will be covered include:

• Trespass
• Remediation Orders
• Tenancy Renewal
• Rights of Way
• Restrictive Covenants
• Deposits
• Service Charges
• Redevelopment Breaks

 Bryan Johnston, Partner and Head of Real Estate Litigation, Dentons

With high demand for building land, an increasing number of developers are turning to land that has some level of private restriction making it difficult to build, even where planning permission has been obtained. This session will look at the practical considerations for developers and investors in deciding whether development may be suitable:

• Accessibility and private rights of way: can you build; can the development use the right of way? McGill v Stewart; McAdams Homes v Robinson
• Restrictions on use: assessing whether these be changed, and practical ways of overcoming them; Fosse v Urban Projects; Collins v Howell; Derreb; Holland Park v Hicks
• Neighbouring owner’s consent: can they simply say ‘no’? Cryer v Scott Bros
• Checking the boundaries of the land to maximise development value: Alan Wibberley; Trevallion v Watmore; Drake v Fripp

 Sarah Thompson-Copsey, Non-Practising Solicitor, Legal Lecturer and Trainer

The impact of the ‘MEES Regulations’ has become a sharp reality to commercial property stakeholders, with the realisation that the minimum standard of ‘B’ by 2030 is more than a rumour and the stark impact of the change in EPC assessment in June 2022 leading to many assets becoming non-compliant far earlier than anticipated.  This talk will look at how the MEES Regulations are playing out in reality in the commercial leasehold market and the several and significant sources of potential dispute ahead over the course of the decade as MEES continues to bite harder.

• Inaccurate EPCs and the impact on property finance
• Liability questions around property purchase and finance
• The wider impact of MEES upon commercial property values
• Lease wording issues around EPCs
• Opportunities for Landlord’s successful recovery of EPC improvement costs
• The ‘excess utility bills’ claim

Ben Strange, Director, Mobius Building Consultancy Ltd

There are many headaches of holding vacant property, but also options for mitigating the problems, such as the use of property guardians and business rates avoidance schemes. The prospect of high street rental auctions, now passed into law, though not yet a reality, may prove to be another solution or another problem. This session will consider:

• Security, insurers’ requirements, and property guardians
• Business rates mitigation schemes
• Deemed utilities contracts
• High Street Rental Auctions

Mark Shelton, Commercial Property Management Law Trainer

Commercial owners of land – just as much as residential owners – can face unexpected problems with neighbouring land. Feelings might not run as high, but costs and management time can be extraordinary. This practical session will look as ways of avoiding and resolving some of the more frequently encountered knotty problems that can arise including:

• Can your business be stopped: noise, smells and overlooking: Tate; Lawrence v Fen Tigers; Piers v Bickerton Aerodrome; Jones v MOD
• Access to neighbouring land: Prime v Thurloe; Power v Shah
• Trees, hedges and knotweed: Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil; Stagecoach v Hind; Sumner v Colbourne; Network Rail v Willliams
• Gates, parking and security: Page v Convoy
• Why checking your land is essential: Pye v Graham; Dowse v Bradford; Calverley Village Day Nursery Ltd v Lynch

Sarah Thompson-Copsey, Non-Practising Solicitor, Legal Lecturer and Trainer

The market is changing at a fast pace. Tenants are consolidating their portfolios and landlords are seeking to maximise their revenue. With that notices must be served, but despite this being the position for many years, there are still a number of challenges. This talk will explore what break conditions really means and how to comply. It will also explore what tools a landlord needs to successfully run an opposed lease renewal and, on the flip side of that, the tactics a tenant can deploy to challenge an opposed lease renewal.

• Break notices – what triggers the break?
• Break conditions (including obligations to give up possession and vacant possession) – what do they really mean?
• Challenging the validity of a break
• Opposed lease renewals – what does a landlord need to evidence and when should that evidence be available and disclosed?
• Tenants’ challenge to an opposed lease renewal – can the tenant defeat the claim by reducing their holding?

Gemma Hunter-Barnes, Counsel, Dentons UK and Middle East LLP

5.00 pm CLOSE OF PROCEEDINGS