Commercial Property Transactions

If you are purchasing, selling or leasing commercial shops or offices, as an owner, occupier, investor or developer, high quality legal advice is an essential part of the process. We act for shop owners, landlords and developers.  Our team of commercial conveyancing solicitors will work alongside your estate agent to ensure a smooth transaction.  

 Our Areas Of Expertise Include:

Sales and purchases

Estate management

Leases grants

Lease assignments

Lease extensions

Rent reviews

Our Services Include:

With every purchase or sale transaction there are key steps to undertake, which vary according to individual circumstances.

They are typically as follows:

  • Taking your instructions and giving initial advised based on the information you have provided

  • Identifying you as required by Money Laundering Regulations

  • Checking finances are in place for you or your buyer to fund the transaction

  • Considering or drafting contracts of sale

  • Considering or drafting property information forms

  • Reviewing all documents that form the legal title to the property

  • Checking leasehold issues with the owner of the freehold

  • Sending or receiving the contacts of sale

  • Raising enquiries upon the documents provided or dealing with any enquires raised

  • Putting indemnity insurance policies in place where required

  • Providing advice on all documents and information received (a ‘report on title’) to you and your lender

  • Finalising the contract and sending to you for signature

  • Agreeing a completion date

  • Exchanging contracts

  • Drawing down funds from your lender and you or receiving funds and completing the purchase

  • Dealing with post completion matters including redeeming any mortgages, the payment of any stamp duty and registering the purchase in your name

    Key Stages

There are a number of stages involved in a commercial property purchase for both vendors and purchasers. The outline below is for a typical purchase but not all transactions follow this set approach.

1 - Investigate title and enquiries

  • If buying or taking a lease, we will raise commercial property standard enquiries with the seller/landlord. We will review the registered title, and your valuation or survey report and raise any additional enquiries that are necessary. We will also carry out property searches and raise enquiries on these.

  • If acting for a seller or landlord, we will provide draft replies to commercial property standard enquiries to you for you to check, and ask you for any other relevant or required information to send to the buyer or tenant. We will respond to the enquiries raised by the other side.

2 - Negotiate documents

  • If acting for a purchaser, we will draft and agree the transfer, and agree the sale contract prepared by the seller’s solicitor. If acting for a landlord, we will draft the lease and any other documents such as licences or deeds and negotiate these with the tenant’s solicitor.

  • If acting for a seller, we will draft a sale contract and agree this with the purchaser’s solicitor and agree the form of transfer. This can take many weeks, as the documents sometimes go through many rounds of amendments before they are agreed by all parties.

3 - Property Report

  • At the same time, we will be preparing our property or lease report to you, if you are buying or taking a lease. This involves reviewing all the paperwork and the search results. We will also arrange for you to sign the transaction documents, which may be done electronically. We will prepare a draft completion statement and send this to you around this time, along with a draft SDLT return for you to review and check, if you are purchasing or taking a lease. We will also request a redemption figure from your lender where applicable.

4 - Exchange of Contracts

  • Many commercial purchases exchange and complete simultaneously, but exchange of contracts is when the transaction becomes legally binding and a completion date is agreed. The documents are exchanged by way of telephone call and sent by post. On exchange the deposit is paid to the seller’s solicitor. Failure to complete on the agreed date can lead to the purchaser forfeiting the deposit.

5 - Pre completion searches

  • If purchasing, a few days before completion, we will carry out priority searches at HM Land Registry and also any bankruptcy or winding up searches.

6 - Prepare for completion

  • If purchasing, we will request funds from your lender and any balance from you.

7 - Completion

  • On the agreed day of completion, if purchasing or taking a lease, we will send the sum required to the seller’s or landlord’s solicitors.

  • Once completed, if selling, we will send funds to the lender to discharge the mortgage. Proceeds of sale will be sent to you where applicable. The legal title in the property will pass over.

8 - Post completion

  • We will arrange for copies of the transaction documents to be circulated to the relevant parties. If purchasing or taking a lease, we will pay any SDLT due to HMRC and file the SDLT return. If you are the tenant of a lease granted for a term of seven years or more, then you must register this at HM Land Registry. All transfers and charges also need to be registered at HM Land Registry. We will apply to register the transaction at HM Land Registry. Any company charges will be registered at Companies House. HM Land Registry is currently working under a backlog, and you should be aware that registration times are currently taking much longer than usual. HM Land Registry sometimes raises questions on applications, known as requisitions, and these must be satisfactorily answered before registration is completed. Unfortunately, these can be raised many months after the transaction has completed.

Time Scales:

The conveyancing process typically takes between 6-16 weeks, but this varies greatly depending on the transaction and the parties. Bear in mind that the more parties and solicitors, the longer it can take.

We will keep you updated as to progress.

We take a practical and commercial approach aimed at helping you complete your property deals quickly, with confidence, and with value for money. Our team of experienced conveyancers are here to make the process as simple and stress free as possible.

 T: 020 8699 3477

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