Strategic Land

Hewitsons' team of solicitors have experience in real estate law spanning a wide range of services.

• Promotion Agreements and Strategic Site Assembly
• Option Agreements
• Conditional Contracts
• Outright Acquisition of freehold and leasehold interests
• Acquisition of rights and easements
• Release or variation of restrictive covenants
• Construction Procurement
• Development Agreements
• Joint Ventures
• Disposal of developed units
• Infrastructure provision and management company structures
• Investment sale and purchase
• Forward funding
• Development finance.

Site Assembly and Acquisition

Skilful acquisition of a development site will produce a title which allows you to service and develop without any legal impediment. It will also satisfy the most painstaking purchaser's, tenant’s or funder’s solicitor.

This is a specialist area of commercial development far beyond “conveyancing” and demands a deep understanding of your practical needs and concerns.

Whether your proposals involve immediate or strategic land acquisition, we understand that you will want the site under contract as quickly as possible.

We will:-

• Ensure the documentation is appropriately drawn and structured to prevent tax or funding problems hampering the development and disposal programme.
• Undertake a thorough investigation of title including on-site inspection.
• Make comprehensive pre-contract searches and enquiries.
• Appraise your progress throughout the project with tailored reporting systems culminating in a final detailed written report.

Our real estate lawyers understand the importance of keeping the disposal programme on schedule and achieving your half-year and year-end targets for commercial development.

Carefully prepared good quality comprehensive documentation for purchasers or funders or tenants will be despatched immediately we receive instructions.

Sales and lettings are strictly monitored and we will keep you informed of progress. We will account to you promptly for deposits and sale proceeds and provide a detailed financial statement in your preferred format on completion.

Joint Venture and Consortium Agreements

These are complex documents and our real estate law team has a great deal of experience across many years working with a variety of structures. We combine thorough legal and technical skills with commercial savvy and imagination. If a deal is to flourish and deliver profitability, then detailed examination of terms and careful attention to drafting documentation is vital.

Construction Procurement

This is an ever more complex and regulated area and our team of real estate lawyers are well versed in acting for both developer and contractor/professional utilising all of the standard forms of procurement documentation as well as more bespoke, tailored agreements for one-off ventures.

We can advise on all aspects of the procurement process from the initial tender to end of life warranty package delivery.

Planning Team

Our experienced planning team of national lawyers will work with you throughout the project life, advising on each step of the planning process from application to implementation and can advise, should it become necessary, on appeal and judicial review procedures.

Their experience extends to addressing some of the more esoteric aspects of regulatory control that development projects throw up, including highways issues, public and private rights of way and environmental compliance.

Property Funding

With numerous funding arrangements available, and the requirements of funders ever more prescriptive, we have the commercial knowledge and experience to present proposals that secure the most appropriately structured finance. This covers the spectrum from straightforward debt finance from banks or other institutional lenders secured by traditional charge documentation through to more intricate equity-linked and participation arrangements such as mezzanine finance.

Unit Disposal and Other Development Issues

As part of our commercial development service we can advise you on the purchase and sale of freeholds, as well as leases and underleases and are able to assist with all associated transactions such as pre-let agreements, unit disposals and the structuring of management companies and other post-development strategies.

Our specialists in real estate law can also advise on building sustainability, renewable energy technologies, participation in the carbon reduction commitment and on-site power generation and distribution.

We offer a full and comprehensive service for commercial developers from the very start of a project to completion.