In this article we take a look back at what has been crossing our desks in 2024 from a real estate perspective and do a bit of crystal-balling on what opportunities and challenges 2025 might bring.
Building Safety Act 2022 (“BSA”)
The standout case for us was Triathlon Homes LLP v Stratford Village Development Partnership which is the first major case to address the new rights of action under Part 5 of the BSA. Continue Reading A look back on 2024, and what to expect in 2025
Introduction
Part X of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (the “Act”) introduced what the Conservative government hoped would provide a solution to all the boarded up shops, cafes and pubs on high streets across the country. It gave a permissive power to the relevant local authority to require vacant properties to be let through an auction process and, in effect, deprive the landlord of management of its own property. Continue Reading Will High Street Auctions bring about a renaissance of the High Street?
The recent High Court decision in the Cineworld restructuring plans case [2024] EWHC 2475 (Ch) again illustrates how even the most pro-active landlords cannot insulate themselves from the effects of a statutory restructuring scheme under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006, despite determined and novel tactics by the two landlords, the Crown Estate Commissioners and UK Commercial Property Finance Holdings Limited (the “Landlords”). We understand that the judgment is already the subject of an appeal. Continue Reading Cineworld Restructuring Plans: no happy ever after for landlords
In the recent case of Bijlani v Medical Express (London) Ltd [2024] EWHC 2246 (KB), the High Court illustrated again that a landlord’s right to forfeit a lease is only a form of security for the tenant’s continuing performance of its obligations under its lease. If the landlord is not prejudiced by breach of a covenant and the breach is unlikely to recur, then relief from forfeiture may be granted. Forfeiture should not be used as a way of penalising a tenant for perceived bad behaviour. Continue Reading Lease and Desist: The Case of Dr. Bijlani’s Botox Blunder
Readers may remember our rather gloomy blog on Mr. Gove’s Renters’ Reform Bill. Our view then was that landlords didn’t need to panic – yet. Unfortunately, with the Renters’ Rights Bill, it may be time for landlords to start feeling distinctly anxious. The headline change in the Renters’ Reform Bill was to abolish so-called “no-fault eviction”. In the end, Mr. Gove’s reforms foundered on the Conservative bank benches – there would be no abolition of no fault evictions until the county court system sorted itself out and waiting times for hearings cut. Continue Reading The Renters’ Rights Bill: Bad News for Landlords
The King’s Speech 2024, delivered on 17 July 2024, outlined the new UK Government’s legislative agenda for the next session of Parliament. The new MPs will be busy, with close to 40 separate bills slated for debate.
With regard to real estate, especially with the private rented sector, there is a distinct feeling of déjà vu. The Renters (Reform) Bill, sponsored by Michael Gove, is re-fashioned as the Renters Rights Bill, and is likely to contain all of the measures set out in its predecessor, before the Conservative back benches forced a dilution of the pro-tenant measures. Continue Reading The King’s Speech: implications for residential property
Background
This case involved a dispute between McDonald’s Restaurants Limited (“McDonald’s”), the former tenant of part of the old County Hall building in London (the “Premises”), and Shirayama Shokusan Company Limited (“Shirayama”), the landlord of the Premises. McDonald’s had a protected lease of the Premises (i.e. benefitting from security of tenure under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (the “Act”)) for a period of 20 years from December 1997. Continue Reading Landlord penalised for its evidence despite a successful application under section 30(1)(g) of Landlord & Tenant Act 1954 – McDonald’s v Shirayama [2024] EWHC 1133 (Ch)
In a survey carried out by HSBC in 2023, 97% of real estate developers and investors said net zero was important to their business and 59% of the largest real estate companies said net zero was their top priority.
A third of companies in the sector already have Transition Plans and the push for formalising Transition Plans across the sector is increasing.
In April 2024, the Transition Plan Taskforce (“TPT”) published its final set of transition plan resources to help businesses transition to net zero. Continue Reading Transition Plans & Real Estate
Background
The decision of the First-Tier Tribunal (the “Tribunal“) in Triathlon Homes LLP v Stratford Village Development Partnership and others [2024] provides the first indication of how the Tribunal will consider applications for remediation contribution orders (“RCOs“) made against a developer and its ultimate parent company.
The Facts
Stratford Village Development Partnership (“SVDP“) developed buildings in Stratford, East London as part of an athletes’ village for the London 2012 Olympic Games. SVDP subsequently retrofitted this village into a large permanent residential estate known as East Village which provided affordable homes, mostly contained in 66 residential buildings of between 8 and 12 storeys in height. This case concerned five of these buildings.Continue Reading Remediation Contribution Orders: An Olympic decision against developers and their parent companies
One of the key parts of the Building Safety Act 2022 is the new Gateway regime for ‘higher risk buildings’, which came into full force on 1 October 2023 This is a three step approval process that is intended to ensure that, in the post-Grenfell landscape, building safety risks are properly scrutinised by the new Building Safety Regulator (the “BSR”) at the planning, design and construction phases of a development of a ‘higher risk building’ (or when carrying out works to an existing ‘higher risk building’). Continue Reading Getting to grips with the new Building Safety Act Gateway regime – how will this impact development in the living sector?