Commercial Property Development - 2025 Virtual Conference

Introduction

This annual conference examines a range of currently topical subjects ranging from the latest on the Building Safety Act 2022 to the latest Supreme Court decision on Collateral Warranties and more.

Conference Agenda

This live and interactive 5-hour conference will cover the following topics:

10:00am - 11:00am: Planning Law Update

Chair: Bob McGeady, Ashton KCJ

This session will examine the major planning cases over the last 12 months.

It will cover:

• An assessment of the impact of the decisions on commercial property practice and procedure
• How to structure your cases
• Major proposed changes to planning will be outlined which will affect commercial
property, with a view to trying to understand what impact those changes will have

Morning Break

11.10am - 12.10pm: Climate Change & Development - All Change

Hannah Mackinlay, Mackinlay Projects Limited

The recent flooding episodes were predicted many years ago and resulted in the Floodwater Management Act 2010, which was not implemented in England due to pressure by the house builder lobby but was implemented in Wales. Many developments have questionable arrangements that may result in catastrophic failure due to failure to maintain or adopt. The Competition and Markets Authority recently issued their report which recommended adoption of infrastructure and the government has responded positively to these recommendations. The focus of this session talk will be the position on:

• Sustainable Drainage - which uses up a lot of developable land, is expensive to maintain and could be an accident waiting to happen
• Acting for a developer, what are the issues that need to be considered now and for the future when setting up the sale of completed houses on the development?
• Owner management companies
• How did it work out in Wales?

12.10pm - 1.10pm: Common Problems on Overage & Clawback - Tales of the Unexpected

Hannah Mackinlay, Mackinlay Projects Limited

Many overage provisions end up in the High Court with arguments about what the parties meant. This session shall look at some of the points that might be overlooked and result in disputes as follows:

• Calculation errors
• Trigger events
• Unexpected consequences
• Loss of protection of the seller
• Sales on
• SDLT

Break for Lunch

2.00pm - 3.00pm: The Building Safety Act 2022 - Main Issues & Practical Concerns

Peta Dollar

This session will look at the main issues with the Building Safety Act 2022 and how to deal with them, including:

• What exactly is an HRB (higher-risk building)?
• What terms are implied into leases of an HRB?
• What should be done to deal with possible delays in passing through the gateways, particularly Gateway 3?
• The risk of future claims against an associated person or associate
• Issues with tenant fitting-out works in HRBs

Afternoon Break

3.15pm - 4.15pm: Collateral Warranties and Third Party Rights - Where Are We Now?

Peta Dollar

The landmark decision of the Supreme Court in Abbey Healthcare (Mill Hill) Ltd v Augusta 2008 LLP (formerly Simply Construct (UK) LLP) has overturned previous case-law in relation to collateral warranties.

This session will consider:

• Collateral warranties - why do we need them?
• What about third-party rights?
• What does a collateral warranty need to contain?
• What does Abbey Healthcare decide?
• Where are we now following Abbey Healthcare?

Close: Chair's Closing Summary and Questions & Answers

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.