Developer De-brief

Autumn 2022

We have had a fantastic season of events this Autumn, both in person and via webinar and we have provided a link within this newsletter to our most recent Clarke Willmott Property Series webinar hosted by Nicola Seager, for those who missed it to catch up.

I also posted our most recent Bristol Property Inclusion Charter event in September at City of Bristol College, Hengrove. The event provided all charter signatories with the opportunity to finally network with one another in person for the first time since the charter’s inaugural event back in 2019.

The charter is a movement I founded and is intended to be a vehicle to promote and drive diversity and inclusion in the Bristol property industry/sector. I founded the charter because I believe that the fantastic opportunities in the property industry in Bristol should be available to all persons regardless of their background and that the Bristol property industry will be enhanced and enriched by such diversity.

At Clarke Willmott, we began our new financial year on 1 May 2022, and our real estate development team are celebrating another successful year for 2021 / 2022. You will find an article from our Chief Executive Stephen Rosser within todays Developer De-brief which breaks down our financial results in detail.

This edition of Developer De-brief takes a deeper look at Adverse Possession by Gabrielle Roberts with the case in point being Calverley Village Day Nursery Ltd v Lynch [2022] EWHC 1855. We advised you in our summer edition that the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022, which would affect property transactions entered into with overseas entities from its commencement was approaching. Laura Ford gives an update of this post the Act coming into force.

In July our Property Litigation team was strengthened by Naomi Cunningham and she is the focus of our “spotlight on” feature in this issue.

We hope you find these articles helpful, and we welcome your feedback. As ever if you would like to see a particular area or topic featured in future issues, please get in touch.

Karl Brown
Partner

In this edition

Update: Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022

The Act came into force on 1 August and on that day Companies House opened its Overseas Entities Register for registration by overseas entities that now, or in the future, own registered land.

Landlord loses appeal against adverse possession claim over land used as a right of way

When buying land it is important to check the site and ensure that what you understand is the extent of the property is not being encroached upon.

In the spotlight: Naomi Cunningham

In this edition of In the Spotlight, we get to know Naomi Cunningham, Partner in our Property litigation team.

Strong financial results for Clarke Willmott and the Real Estate sector

We are pleased to report another year of positive results from 2021/22, with a revenue of £59.6 million – up 12 per cent on the prior year on the back of strong results across the firm’s teams and sectors, including the real estate sector who provided 28% of the firms overall revenue.

Clarke Willmott Property Series

On 27th September Mark Christie (Senior Associate, Construction), Adam Burrage (Partner, Commercial Property), Naomi Cunningham (Partner, Property Litigation) and Caroline Mortimer (Partner, Commercial Property) delivered another successful Clarke Willmott Property Series webinar chaired by Nicola Seager (Partner, Property Litigation).

Naomi and Caroline discussed restrictive covenants in light of the Mill Strand case, which considered covenant modification to allow development. Mark and Adam discussed modern methods of construction, in particular the construction aspects of modular builds and the impact modular construction has had on the housebuilder sector.