News

Devonshires recently acted for A2Dominion Housing Group Limited in establishing its £1bn Euro Medium Term Note programme and subsequent issue of a £250m 3.50% unsecured sterling bond due 2028.

News that hundreds of care homes are banning relatives from visiting elderly residents over complaints about quality of care highlights a growing need for sector reform.

On the 9 November 2016 the Supreme Court announced its judgment to the bedroom tax challenges made against the government.

The new Construction and Engineering Protocol will come into effect on 9 November 2016 following a joint collaboration between TecBar and TecSA with the assistance of Mr Justice Coulson. The focus of the changes seems to be to reduce pre-action costs and speed up the pre-action procedure.

Since 2006, contracting authorities have been able to use the competitive dialogue (CD) procedure to procure contracts that cannot be awarded without prior dialogue with bidders due to the complex nature of the contract.

From low level noise through to full blown party houses, Airbnb and subletting is creating a broad range of issues for registered providers (RPs). That was the message that came through loud and clear at a recent event we held to discuss the impact of the room-letting website on the social housing sector.

On the 1 November 2016 the Court of Appeal considered the case of Holley v Hillingdon LBC. Mr Holley continued to occupy a property owned by the local authority following the death of the tenant, his grandfather, who had previously succeeded to the tenancy.

The care sector is back in the spotlight this month with two reports that highlight the ever growing number of challenges it faces.

Devonshires acted for Merlin on a race discrimination claim issued in the Bristol Employment Tribunal by an ex-employee. The Judge dismissed all allegations of discrimination and made a finding of fact that the Claimant had lied whilst giving evidence. Devonshires made an application for costs based on the ex-employees unreasonable conduct and he was ordered to pay £17,204.16.

We acted for L&Q in the acquisition of 29 Affordable Housing Units from Countryside Zest (Beaulieu Park) LLP on the Neighbourhood Centre and Zone B of the Beaulieu Park development in Chelmsford, Essex.

The only reported Airbnb case so far has attracted media attention and a small flurry of articles and opinion pieces.

bpha has secured a new £75 million loan facility with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi.