Practice areas

Our real estate practice includes a team of lawyers, exclusively dedicated to real estate management, enabling us to ensure that it is given the highest level of expertise and priority.

We appreciate that clients expect asset management work to be actioned quickly and efficiently in order to minimise rental voids, to avoid problems with tenants and to keep the costs proportionate. We believe that what we offer through our team, with individuals that clients are familiar with, differentiates us from many other law firms and provides the peace of mind that matters are being handled properly.

We cover all aspects of the landlord and tenant relationship including the grant of new tenancies and lease renewals. We handle all permissive licences efficiently and are well placed to deal with defaulting tenants. Tenant requests, as well as tenancy insolvency have been a greater issue in the recent past. We have a wealth of experience in handling liquidations, administrations, company voluntary arrangements and other forms of insolvency arising from the more challenging market conditions.

We work with clients to devise a system that works for them and their managing agents; this might involve a bespoke reporting format, an extranet to hold all documents or standard documents for particular properties. There is no one size fits all in asset management and so we tailor our service to meet clients' needs. We have more experience than most in this area as we manage a portfolio of properties for private clients and this gives us wider commercial experience that assists in providing the best service.

Recent examples of asset management work include:

Providing asset management services for the entire Industrial Property Investment Fund. We have produced standard documents and streamlined procedures to give a fast, efficient and cost effective service that is supported by an extranet that we set up to ensure rapid access to all relevant documents. We work closely with managing agents as well as clients to ensure that the service provided is seamless and as responsive as it can be.

Other clients which take advantage of our dedicated team include AXA Sun Life, the Arora International Group, ING Lionbrook and Invista. In addition we manage, in house at Macfarlanes, over 200 properties for private clients, private property companies and charities; providing not only legal services but also rent collection and other management services. We will call on the expertise of surveyors when required, but this in house capability enables us to give those clients a full service and thus minimising the involvement of busy clients that do not have time to manage their property portfolios.