Property Legal Column Articles
Since 2009 Tods Murray have issued regular bulletins highlighting issues of importance to those involved in the property industry. The following articles have been published to date. To receive this regular update please click here to subscribe.
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Tue 03 Apr 2012
The Long Leases (Scotland) Bill is the latest move by the Scottish Parliament to modernise and simplify Scottish property law. This pragmatic piece of legislation will convert ownership in notion to ownership in name by upgrading tenants’ rights under “qualifying” leases to ownership.
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Fri 09 Mar 2012
There has been an emerging trend for courts to interpret contracts based on commercially sensible outcomes. Two recent cases, both involving developers, show a willingness on the part of judges to introduce terms in contracts in favour of commercial sense even where there are express terms to the contrary.
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Wed 29 Feb 2012
Changes to the current Energy Performance Regulations will be implemented on 6 April 2012.
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Mon 06 Feb 2012
The general principle behind section 426 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) is that an order with regard to insolvency proceedings made in one part of the UK will be enforced in the other parts of the UK (s426\91)) including an order appointing a trustee in bankruptcy to individuals.
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Fri 20 Jan 2012
The current system of land registration in Scotland was introduced in 1979 and even the Keeper of The Registers of Scotland herself has acknowledged that the system is no longer “fit for purpose”.
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Fri 23 Dec 2011
Mary Portas’ review of Britain’s troubled high streets
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Mon 05 Dec 2011
The Scottish Government launched a Consultation Paper into the implementation of Section 63 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.
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Fri 28 Oct 2011
The planning system in Scotland has undergone some radical changes by virtue of the Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006. This legislation has staggered piecemeal into a market place in need of much greater scope and clarity.
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Fri 14 Oct 2011
More servitudes in the pipeline
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Tue 30 Aug 2011
The Town and Country Planning (Demolition which is not Development) (Scotland) Revocation Direction 2011
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Mon 25 Jul 2011
The use of compulsory purchase orders remains controversial; as illustrated recently by use on the high-profile M8 and M74 completions and Beauly-Denny power line.
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Mon 27 Jun 2011
In this Property Legal Column, Stuart Rowson discusses renewable energy against the backdrop of the recent decision by Lord McEwan in Dulce Packard and Others for Judicial Review.
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Thu 27 Jan 2011
With the commencement of the CRC Scheme imminent, and the announcement in the Government’s Spending Review in October 2010 that there are to be no recycling payments under the Scheme, owners and occupiers of commercial buildings may well be thinking about how to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings they own and/or occupy.
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Mon 10 Jan 2011
After the five-yearly revaluation of all non-domestic properties which took place in 2010, the property industry might have thought that the topic of rates would not throw up anything of note for some time.
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Thu 09 Dec 2010
The SDLT rules on “linked” transactions have long been though to discourage commercial investment in the private rented sector. The property industry is hopeful that the new Scotland Bill, which received its first reading in the House of Commons on St Andrew’s Day, may change this.
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Thu 18 Nov 2010
The UK government has radically changed the nature of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme by announcing that there will be no recycling payments under the Scheme.
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Fri 29 Oct 2010
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently published a consultation on its proposed guidance on the application of competition law following the revocation of the Land Agreements Exclusion Order 2004.
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Thu 07 Oct 2010
On 30 September the CRC scheme registration period for all qualifying parties ended. The aim of the scheme is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and thus cut costs, a goal which is surely attractive to the commercial property sector. But what effect will the CRC scheme have on the traditional landlord/tenant relationship?
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Thu 02 Sep 2010
In this Property Legal Column, we look at a recent Scottish case of importance for landlords dealing with tenants who go into administration.
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Thu 12 Aug 2010
Earlier this year our Property Legal Column reviewed some of the recent cases on the subject of serving notices www.todsmurray.com/takingnotice. These cases have now been joined by the recent case of Batt Cables PLC v Spencer Business Parks Ltd, which again highlights how easy it is to get it wrong when serving a notice.
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Thu 22 Jul 2010
It is not unusual for parties to enter into a contract which provides for one or more points to be agreed after the contract has been concluded. The matters concerned vary, as does the wording used in the contract, but broadly they are all “agreements to agree”.
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Thu 24 Jun 2010
It is often the case that those seeking to sell alcohol as part of their use of commercial premises, hit upon a major stumbling block when the titles for a property contain restrictions prohibiting such use which are enforceable by neighbouring owners. This article takes a look at the recent case of Matnic Limited v Armstrong which demonstrates the common sense and practical approach adopted by the Lands Tribunal in looking at the variation/relaxation of such conditions.
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Fri 04 Jun 2010
The Disposal of Land by Local Authorities (Scotland) Regulations 2010, and accompanying Statutory Guidance set out the circumstances in and the procedures by which a local authority may dispose of land for less than the best consideration than can reasonably be obtained.
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Mon 10 May 2010
The recent case of Hamilton v Nairn (2010 SLT 399) has clarified what is included in a “public road” for the purposes of s1 of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 (“the 1984 Act”), and the rights of owners of land which forms part of a public road. In doing so, it has brought good news for developers and others who have faced problems with uncooperative landowners.
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Thu 29 Apr 2010
There have been a number of cases in the Scottish courts in recent years on the subject of whether notices have been validly served. This article takes a look at a few of them, and asks what lessons can be learned on how to serve notices validly.
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Thu 08 Apr 2010
The construction industry and its employers are all too familiar with the loud cry from lawyers, along the lines of - “Don’t use Letters of Intent – uncertainty and doom will ensue”.
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Thu 11 Mar 2010
Gordon Cunningham, Head of Tods Murray’s Private Client Team, reports that his team completed two house deals in a matter of hours this week. This highlights what is possible in today’s property market when everything is in place.
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Thu 25 Feb 2010
As many organisations take steps to decide whether they have to register for the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, this article looks at how landlords could manage the Scheme.
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Fri 29 Jan 2010
The traditional lease of property in the UK has been for a long period, with quarterly rent payments and upward only rent reviews. However, there are signs that there may be changes ahead.
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Thu 07 Jan 2010
Both quarterly rent payments and upwards only rent reviews have been the subject of discussion and suggested reform over the past few years, before and during the economic downturn. This two part article looks at whether these touchstones of the UK property industry will ever change.
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Thu 03 Dec 2009
As pressure to reduce energy consumption increases through the introduction of legislative measures, how can the energy consumption of existing commercial buildings be reduced?
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Thu 12 Nov 2009
The sale and rent back sector is now subject to regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Could other sectors of the property industry be in line for similar treatment?
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Thu 22 Oct 2009
Every five years all non-domestic property is valued for the purposes of determining the business rates it attracts. The rateable value of a property is its estimated rental value at a date two years before the Rating List comes into force. The latest revaluation comes into effect on 1 April 2010 with a valuation date of 1 April 2008.
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Fri 02 Oct 2009
Given that taxation is commonly used as a tool to influence the taxpayer’s behaviour it will come as no surprise that tax breaks are available to those who wish to reduce their carbon footprint.
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Thu 10 Sep 2009
A case decided in the Court of Session in Edinburgh very recently raises serious concerns about the validity of faxed missives, adding frustrating delays and a layer of uncertainty to a system that has come to rely on modern electronic communications to conclude property deals.
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Thu 20 Aug 2009
In the current depressed economic climate the offer of guaranteed employment sounds almost too good to be true. However, for those in the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) it may be difficult to show gratitude for this offer from HMRC.
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Thu 30 Jul 2009
Co-tenancy clauses are intended to give retailers leasing a unit in a shopping centre comfort that the centre will provide them with an adequate level of business. As retail sales fall, could they prove more damaging to landlords than anticipated?
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Thu 09 Jul 2009
Developers must act now and adapt their practices in the wake of the Land Tribunal’s decision in PMP Plus v The Keeper.
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Thu 18 Jun 2009
The British Property Federation (“BPF”) has recently published a Regeneration Manifesto urging government intervention to kick-start regeneration projects in the UK’s towns and cities. It makes interesting reading for those in the commercial property sector.
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Thu 04 Jun 2009
Green leases have been around for a while, but with the increase in legal requirements relating to energy consumption and the recent publication of a new Green Lease Toolkit, has the time now come for them to be the norm rather than the exception?
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Wed 20 May 2009
Is your organisation, or any of your landlords or tenants, one of the 20,000 organisations that the Government estimates will be involved in the Carbon Reduction Commitment (“CRC”) scheme at some level? If so you should be finding out now about what you need to know about CRC in advance of the introduction of the scheme in April 2010.
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Thu 07 May 2009
The intense interest generated in the run-up to the Budget was surpassed only by the generally widespread condemnation which followed in the days after the speech.
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Thu 23 Apr 2009
A long-running saga over the status of an access to a housing development seems to have reached the end of its first phase.
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Wed 08 Apr 2009
As the downturn in the residential property market continues, many builders are renting out unsold properties.
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Wed 25 Mar 2009
What are the options for getting out of an unwanted lease? And what are the tax implications of doing so?
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Thu 12 Mar 2009
Almost two years into the BPRA’s five year period of availability, is it delivering the anticipated benefits to those who seek to claim it?
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Thu 26 Feb 2009
As the credit crunch continues to bite, could Glasgow City Council be the property developer’s new best friend?