In House Seminars

Alan Riley has been delivering in-house seminars, lectures, workshops and training courses to law firms since the 1990s, providing training on a wide range of commercial (and some residential) property related topics. Sessions can be delivered to firms online or face-to-face in the office, and can be tailored to run for short sessions or half-day sessions, or combined to run for full day sessions where required. Training sessions cover most aspects of property work including:

A. LANDLORD AND TENANT:

Dealing with tenant default – analysing the options available for landlords in the event of tenant default or insolvency.

Terminating leases – the practicalities of surrender, agreements for surrender, landlord and tenant break rights, merger, forfeiture and simple lease expiry and non-renewal.

Negotiating leases in the light of Codes of Practice – how tenants might approach the negotiation of a commercial lease in current conditions and with the benefit of Codes of Practice (i.e. the Code for Leasing Business Premises and the Code of Practice for Service Charges in Commercial Property).

1954 Act termination and lease renewal – detailed analysis of the workings of the 1954 Act in relation to termination and renewal, including analysis of terminations under section 25, 26 and 27, applications for renewal, opposition to renewal and renewal terms, and a full review of the procedure for contracting-out of the 1954 Act under The Regulatory Reform (Business Tenancies) (England and Wales) Order 2003.

Drafting tenant security documents (guarantees, AGAs and rent deposit deeds) – drafting the usual forms of security used by landlords for tenant covenant performance.

Drafting alienation provisions – drafting and negotiating typical institutional-type covenants against assigning and sub-letting premises.

Drafting insurance provisions – analysing insurance issues arising between a landlord and tenant (including the drafting of landlord and tenant covenants, defining insured risks, dealing with uninsured risk, re-instatement, rent abatement and break rights).

Drafting rent review clauses – drafting and negotiating a typical institutional-type open market rent review clause (and also including RPI clauses (capped and collared), turnover rent clauses, and other variants).

Repairs, alterations and service charges – drafting and practical issues relating to the creation and operation of commercial service charges, repair, alteration and decorating covenants, and the range and practical implications of the remedies for breach.

Underleases under the spotlight – dealing with all aspects of under-letting, including the drafting of under-letting clauses; obtaining consent to under-let; lease liability; head-lease and under-lease termination; 1954 Act implications; concurrent leases.

Climate change and commercial leases – analysing lease drafting issues to deal with minimum energy efficiency standards, the use of green lease provisions in commercial leases, and issues for landlords and tenants arising out of EPCs.

B. LAND ACQUISITION AND DISPOSAL:

Land contracts for commercial property – drafting and negotiating contracts for the sale of land with vacant possession, dealing with parties, parcels, and price, title and title guarantees, relevant Commercial Property Standard Conditions, side letters, execution and contract variations.

Drafting overage clauses – property law drafting devices used to obtain, value and secure overage or clawback.

Land contracts for investment property – how to deal with property management issues on a sale (e.g. 1954 Act matters, rent reviews, licences etc.), insurance of a reversion, apportioning liability, outgoings and income, and the TOGC rules.

Agreements for lease – drafting agreements for lease made conditional upon the obtaining of planning and the carrying out of works.

Land contracts – options, pre-emptions and conditional contracts – the legal and practical issues in relation to option contracts and pre-emption agreements, and the drafting of conditional sale agreements (e.g. on planning; reversioner’s consent).

Land contracts – land promotion agreements and options – contrasting the various methods available to a landowner for the disposal of development land, and analysing the terms of a land promotion agreement, with or without residual options to buy.

Pre-emption rights in buildings subject to residential leases – Pre-emption rights under the LTA 1987.

Contract to completion – What effect does an exchange of contracts have on the parties rights and responsibilities? How should the contract deal with matters arising between exchange and completion? What if there is damage? What if the buyer takes up occupation? What if new public requirements or title matters affect the property?

Post-completion matters – Priority periods and land registration; discharging mortgages; registering new charges; attending to SDLT; accounting for VAT.

C. OTHER PROPERTY LAW ISSUES:

Practical easement problems – practical and legal issues arising out of easements affecting land examined in a practical commercial context.

Dealing with covenants affecting land – practical and legal issues arising out of the enforceability of positive and restrictive covenants.

Development land acquisition – ensuring proper access/services; dealing with party wall disputes; boundary problems; adverse possession; working around restrictive covenants; dealing with planning obligations; access over adjacent land for development purposes; town or village green applications.

Land Registry practice problems – current land registry practice in view of the changes introduced by LRA 2002, the LRR 2003, and all subsequent rule amendments and practice changes. Analysing common traps, mistakes, pitfalls and problem areas.

Transaction problem cases – failure to complete; forfeiture of deposit; delivery of vacant possession; title defects; misrepresentation and non-reliance; using or excluding other remedies.

Highway matters – exploring all matters of highway law that impact upon the transactional property lawyer, including what is a highway, how highways come about, what is the extent of the highway, how adverse possession rules are affected by the highway, closure diversion and extinguishment of highways, private roads and private rights of way, and CPO matters.

Corporate support work – the structures of corporate transactions and of the property lawyer’s role in them, and a consideration of the different methods available for protecting a buyer – certificates of title (analysing the City of London long form certificate), warranties, or title investigation.

Effective reporting to clients – compiling reports on title for clients in relation to land acquisitions.

General Property Updates – a general property law update, analysing recent case law, practice and statutory developments for the benefit of all property fee earners.

SDLT – tackling SDLT problem areas (including what is notifiable and what is not; what consideration is chargeable; how lease duty works – and what traps lie in wait; how to defer payment of tax; options; pre-emptions; sub-sales; and other problem areas).

VAT on property – how the VAT legislation impacts on a variety of property supplies (e.g. landlord and tenant relationships; sale of land; TOGC; options to tax ).

Insolvency and property – How does bankruptcy, liquidation, administration, receivership and voluntary arrangement impact upon property ownership, property transmission, and remedies?

Complying with formalities for deeds and documents – steps to be followed to ensure that a contract is properly entered into, a variation is properly made, and a deed or document is properly executed, including all forms of e-signatures and ‘Mercury’ signings.

Property insurance – analysing the interaction of principles of insurance law with property transactions (including insurances between seller and buyer; between landlord and tenant; and relevant issues affecting title insurances and PI and construction insurance).

Professional conduct for property lawyers – analysing the key areas of professional conduct that impact upon the commercial property lawyer (overriding duties, issues arising from the retainer, conflicts, confidentiality, contract races, undertakings).

Legal Drafting – rules of construction and interpretation; rectification of deeds and documents; sensibly structuring a documents; adhering to a consistent style; ensuring proper legal effect; correct use of language.