Read more about our latest real estate update aimed at in house lawyers (and other professionals) practising in the property / real estate sector.
An operator whose contracted out lease expired prior to the Electronic Communications Code 2017 coming into force had no means of obtaining rights under that Code.
The first reported case on how a court determines rent on the renewal of a lease of a telecommunications mast site under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 following the Electronic Communications Code 2017 coming into force.
The court construes the meaning of an exception and reservation in transfers relating to mines and minerals.
The court interprets the guarantee provisions in a lease to uphold their validity under the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995.
An exclusivity covenant given by a landlord of a shopping centre to an anchor tenant was not declared unenforceable under the common law doctrine of restraint of trade.
In order to boost the housing market following the pandemic, the SDLT nil rate band for residential property purchases has been increased from £125,000 to £500,000 for transactions with an effective date between 8 July 2020 and 31 March 2021 (inclusive). This change applies whether or not a buyer has owned a home before and replaces first time buyers’ relief for that period.
This change will also benefit buyers who pay the 3% surcharge on the purchase of additional dwellings and means that they will only be taxed at £3% on the slice of the purchase price up to £500,000.
All the temporary reduced rates can be viewed from here.
These regulations amended the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (in England) and came into effect on 1 September 2020. They aim to better reflect the increasingly diverse range of uses found on high streets and in town centres and to allow businesses the flexibility to adapt and diversify to meet changing demands.
The main changes are as follows:
For the period covering 1 September 2020 to 31 July 2021, the use classes in force up to and including 31 August 2020 still apply (amongst other things) for determining whether a change of use is covered by a permitted development right.
These regulations extend the protection given to residential tenants by Schedule 29 of the Coronavirus Act 2020. Protection started on 26 March 2020 and was due to end on 30 September 2020, but this has now been pushed back (in England) until 31 March 2021.
In addition, the regulations extend (subject to some exceptions) the notice period that must be given of a landlord’s intention to seek possession of premises let under a residential tenancy (including an assured tenancy and an assured shorthold tenancy) from three months to six months. One important exception is where possession is sought on grounds of anti-social behaviour or domestic violence (where the notice period that applied before 26 March 2020 will again apply).
The temporary restriction on a landlord forfeiting a business tenancy for non-payment of rent or any other sum due under a lease (in section 82 of the Coronavirus Act 2020) has been extended until 31 December 2020 (from 30 September 2020). The temporary restrictions on serving a statutory demand and presenting a winding-up petition in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 have also been similarly extended.
In addition, the temporary restriction on the use by a landlord of CRAR has also been extended until 31 December 2020 (from 30 September 2020), with the minimum net unpaid rent that must be outstanding before CRAR may take place (under the Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013) being increased from 189 days to 276 days (where CRAR takes place on or before 24 December 2020) and to 366 days (where CRAR takes place on or after 25 December 2020) (in normal circumstances, this is only 7 days).
These three reports were all published by the Law Commission on the same day as a package of measures which, if implemented, will radically transform the future of home ownership in England and Wales.
Enfranchisement report
Some of the key recommendations are as follows:
Right to Manage (RTM) Report
Some of the key recommendations are as follows:
Commonhold Report
Some of the key recommendations are as follows:
The Law Commission acknowledges that its recommendations provide the blueprint for a workable commonhold regime, but that they cannot on their own lead to its widespread adoption and that it is now for the government to decide whether commonhold should be compulsory (in all or some circumstances), incentivised or left optional.
Copies of the reports (as well as other supporting documents) can be downloaded from here.
This consultation has been published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and runs until 30 October 2020. It was launched at the same time as the government’s consultation on changing the planning system (the White Paper: Planning for the Future). The government wishes to increase the transparency of contractual arrangements used to exercise control over the buying or selling of land. It believes that this will improve the ability of local communities to play an informed role in the development of their neighbourhoods and will support the government’s efforts to encourage more companies to enter the house building market.
The government’s proposal envisages the creation of a publicly available dataset showing who holds options, rights of pre-emption and conditional contracts over registered land. It would do this by providing that the interests concerned could only be protected by registering an agreed notice (rather than a unilateral notice) and by requiring the applicant to provide additional data about these interests to the Land Registry before an agreed notice could be registered.
Statutory rights, testamentary options and rights of pre-emption and options held by individuals relating to the purchase or lease of residential property for use as a domestic residence (and which are not dependent on the fulfilment of a planning permission condition) would be exempted from the requirements.
A copy of the consultation can be viewed from here.
This came into force on 1 September. For the first time, it has been published as an RICS professional statement. This means that the sections which use the words ‘must’ lay down requirements from which RICS members must not depart. By contrast, the sections which use the word ‘should’ constitute areas of good practice and the RICS recognises that there may be exceptional circumstances when it is appropriate to depart from them.
A copy of the Code can be viewed from here.
The Land Registry has announced that, from 27 July 2020, it will (until further notice) accept for registration transfers and certain other deeds that have been electronically signed provided that the requirements set out in paragraph 13.3 of Practice Guide 8 have been complied with. Crucially, this includes a requirement for a personal certificate from the conveyancer lodging the application as follows:
“I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the requirements set out in practice guide 8 for the execution of deeds using electronic signatures have been satisfied.”
In the light of this, it would seem sensible for that conveyancer to manage the signing process using their own electronic signing platform.
The Land Registry also advises conveyancers to retain with their file a copy of the completion certificate or audit report produced by the electronic signature platform at the end of the signing process. Such a certificate or report should give an audit trail of the signing process and act as evidence that the Land Registry’s requirements have been complied with (e.g. the time and date of the signatures, the email addresses the document was sent to, the one-time password method used, the fields that were completed and the IP addresses of the devices that were used).
Where a signature needs a witness (e.g. an individual executing a deed), the law still requires the witness to be physically present. As a result, the Land Registry suggests that conveyancers drafting a deed that might be electronically signed may wish to add a statement as follows next to or beneath where the witness is to sign:
“I confirm that I was physically present when [name of signatory] signed this deed.”
Paragraph 13.4 of Practice Guide 8 lists the documents which the Land Registry accepts can be signed electronically. Appendix 3 contains an example of an acceptable conveyancer’s certificate.
A copy of Practice Guide 8 can be viewed from here.
The Land Registry has rewritten the part of Practice Guide 19 dealing with this (paragraph 3.1.5).
The key points to note are as follows:
A copy of Practice Guide 19 can be viewed from here.
The Land Registry has published this new Practice Guide to bring together in one place information about pre-existing and new practice of particular relevance in the current circumstances
A copy of Practice Guide 80 can be viewed from here.
Professional Development Lawyer
david.harris@brownejacobson.com
+44 (0)115 934 2019