Case study: Changing places

Tiffany Scott QC reports on a Court of Appeal decision confirming that a landlord‘s refusal of consent to an application for change of planning use was unreasonable ‘This is the first decided case concerning the interrelationship between a covenant expressly authorising residential use and a covenant not to apply for planning permission without the landlord‘s …
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Indexed rent reviews: Are we getting them right?

Lauren Hart and David Newnham highlight the need to be aware of alternative indices to the RPI when drafting rent review clauses, and provide pointers when doing so ‘Lawyers should be alive to the issues at hand in order to advise their client as to whether the chosen method for calculation really captures the intentions …
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Planning update: The NPPF six years on

Rachael Herbert considers the main proposed changes in the draft NPPF and whether these will be sufficient to deal with the housing crisis ‘The government‘s manifesto promise to protect the green belt has not been abandoned in the draft NPPF despite the urgent need to boost the delivery of new housing. In fact, it could …
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Drafting points: Endeavouring to understand

Heather McDonald and Natasha Rees outline the three types of endeavour and their current definitions and consider the practical implications of using each in drafting ‘Care should be exercised in the use of firms‘ precedent agreements and clarity should trump finality in order to ensure parties are clear on their obligations and that these are …
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Construction focus: Another reason to stay

John Starr examines a case in which the judge added a further principle to the circumstances in which there can be a stay of execution of an adjudicator‘s decision ‘In the view of the judge, one of the policy considerations in respect of the approach of the courts to allegations of fraud on enforcement included …
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The 1990 Environmental Protection Act: Historical land contamination

Greg Jones and Andrew Wiseman discuss a case with lessons regarding the results of a standard environmental search ‘The 1990 Environmental Protection Act specifies that the polluter pays the cost of clean up, but when the pollution event is historical this is impractical even if evidence of the responsible party is highly persuasive.‘ Councils are …
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GDPR: Implications for real estate

Loretta Pugh reviews the soon-to-be-implemented regulation and how businesses should respond ‘Under the current data protection regime, only data controllers have direct obligations and liability. A major change introduced by the GDPR is that data processors will also have direct compliance obligations and can be subject to enforcement action for infringing the GDPR.‘ On 25 …
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