As a continuation of our Energy, Telecoms and Infrastructure webinar series, our next session will cover some common forms of licences we come across in our development work. Licences are used in a number of circumstances where rights are required over third-party land without granting exclusive possession or creating any relationship of landlord and tenant and they can be beneficial and necessary legal instruments for both new developments and existing stock.
As a developer you may, for instance, require a licence for access to carry out ground investigative surveys at a potential development site or need to rely on a licence provision within a development or build agreement itself where a transaction involves the disposal of s106 units under a golden brick arrangement and access to the land will still be required to complete the works between the golden brick and practical completion stages. Aside from access licences, there are also some common forms of construction licences which are often helpful tools during the construction period of a development, including scaffolding and oversailing licences. These are often needed where it is necessary to erect scaffolding upon or oversail (with a crane) third-party land. In such instances, it would first be necessary to identify the relevant adjoining owner(s) and agree the licence arrangements, including but not limited to the licence fee, licence period and appropriate indemnity provisions. Where the third-party land is or includes adopted highway, the developer or contractor will often be required to enter into the relevant Local Authority’s standard form of template licence. Another common form of highways licence we will look at is that which is granted pursuant to section 177 of the Highways Act 1980 allowing the construction of part of a building over a highway maintainable at public expense – this can be used to cover a scenario where a building forming part of a new development has balconies overhanging the public highway.
Finally, we will also look at some examples of personal user licences and some typical situations in which those may arise, including for example a licence to occupy a premises (as an alternative to the grant of a tenancy or lease), a licence to alter a premises (in conjunction with an existing tenancy agreement or lease) or a licence to use a garage, bike store or parking space.
Speakers:
Nat Cartwright, Solicitor, Real Estate & Projects
Nat advises on a broad range of property transactions with a particular emphasis on site acquisitions, development agreements, regeneration and utilities.
As well as this core area of work, Nat heads up our Energy, Telecoms & Infrastructure team.
Grant Duranti, Solicitor, Real Estate & Projects
Grant works primarily with Registered Providers on property transactional work and on development site acquisitions. Grant also advises on planning and S106 issues, overage and clawbacks, dealing with consents, establishing standard processes for larger scale disposals and bespoke drafting of transfer/lease documents.
