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Commercial landlords with premises still unlet in November have a matter of weeks to get a letting done before the year end. Deals that moved steadily through the autumn can stall once occupiers turn their attention to year-end, decision-makers become harder to pin down and getting a lease signed turns into a practical challenge of…

My dad and his two brothers grew up in Clerkenwell, back when it was a smoky industrial area, and long before the words flat white and avocado were first uttered in England. It was natural for them to follow the local team, Arsenal, though my grandfather was fond of the Orient. Leyton Orient, that is.…

On most construction projects, the contractor will take on obligations to the employer that need to be reflected in the subcontracts below it. That is where back-to-back drafting commonly comes in.  The difficulty is that the same wording does not always produce the same result. A notice period that works in the main contract may…

Planning permission can add significant value to a development site. However, that value depends heavily on the scheme being capable of delivery, and that is something that planning permission does not establish.  Access is a good example. A planning authority may be satisfied that a proposed access works in highways and planning terms, but that…

For commercial tenants approaching lease expiry, staying put is increasingly a genuine alternative to relocation. There may be good reasons for it. Avoiding the cost and carbon associated with a move, retaining a location that works, and using refurbishment to create a substantially different workplace without changing address all makes sense. But there is a…