Services offered
Advises on liabilities in connection with your existing lease:
Acquisitions
- Ensures that your lease is in line with your selection criteria.
- Local authority and other searches
- Obtains necessary consents
- Raises enquiries of the landlord, existing tenant or seller
- Agrees exclusivity period
- Investigates the landlord’s interest
- Investigates any restrictions on use (e.g. planning control)
- Agrees details not carried in the Heads of Terms
- Negotiates the lease and any other documentation
- Exchanges contracts
- Completes and registers
Disposals
- Agrees of Heads of Terms
- Negotiates the lease and other documentation
- Obtains necessary consent
- Exchanges contracts
- Completion
Selection criteria
Track record
Look for experience of your type of project. Ask for references from current clients and visit completed recent projects. Find out about their reputation.
Qualifications
Ensure the lawyer you select has the relevant qualifications
The people
What is their technical skill and knowledge?
Are you going to be able to get on with them through the life of the project?
Resources
Can the firm handle your project – is it too big, is it too small?
Location
Is it important for a firm to be close to you or close to your site? ( It is probably more convenient for you to have easy access to your team than for them to have easy access to your site as it is unlikely that they will need to visit)
Communication
Do they use your language, or do they speak in jargon you don’t understand without explaining it?
Understanding
Do they appear interested in, and understand your needs and your brief. If not, it is doubtful you will ever get what you want from them.
Overall abilities
Do they have the ability to implement the brief and achieve your objectives?
Is what you see what you will get?
Check that the people that you meet during the selection process are the people that you will work with, and not just “front men”.
Financial status
Do they have the right level of financial stability and insurance cover to survive the sometimes financially precarious property industry?
