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TALK TO LODDERS’ LEGAL EXPERTS
Primary contact:
Lodders’ Social Housing team is highly regarded and provides an unrivalled level of client service, offering the skill, resource and commerciality to assist registered providers on a variety of social housing matters.
Speak to one of our expert team today.
Senior Associate
James Leighfield
Lodders’ legal services for registered providers include:
- Site acquisition, site set up and plot sales (including shared ownership sales)
- Development agreements (including golden brick and “turnkey” agreements)
- Planning, highways and biodiversity advice
- Construction advice
- Housing management services
- General charity advice
Property services for registered providers
Lodders can offer a full service to registered providers when acquiring a site, from advice on the initial site acquisition through to plot sales, whether this is land the registered provider will develop themselves or the acquisition of Section 106 units from a housebuilder. Lodders can advise on a variety of ancillary matters such as planning, infrastructure agreements, highways, biodiversity and construction matters.
Housing management services for registered providers
Lodders can offer a full housing management service to registered providers, including:-
- Drafting tenancy agreements and licences
- Advice on succession and mutual exchange
- Mental health and Equality Act issues (Public Sector Equality Duty)
- Advice on policies, procedures and compliance with regulatory standards
- Tenancy enforcement, anti-social behaviour and other breaches
- Rent arrears and service charge recovery
- Long leasehold and shared ownership advice
- Property disputes (including boundaries, rights of way and restrictive covenants)
Training
Equipping your staff with the tools they need so that they can work more effectively is something we enjoy. Housing Management, in particular, lends itself to upskilling so that your teams can serve their own notices and take some cases to court. We can also provide training in other areas to suit your needs. We will provide onsite in person training, or sessions via Zoom or Teams.
We recently provided training to a Midlands housing provider on the Equality Act 2010 and the types of discrimination, particularly relating to housing management. We considered the Public Sector Equality Duty – how to review cases where this might be relevant and how to record those reviews in advance of bringing proceedings.
MORE INFORMATION
Other residential land development services:
Real Estate group
Meet our Social Housing specialists:
Social housing FAQS
Questions answered
Not sure that this is the service for you? Take a look at some of our frequently asked questions for more information.
Lodders is a well-established law firm that has both regional and national coverage, with an award-winning team of expert and highly skilled residential development solicitors. We are the law firm behind many of our regions' leading developers and housebuilders.
Simply click the ‘Get in touch’ button at the top this page or visit our contact page link below.
A golden brick contract is often the contract of choice for a private developer selling plots to registered providers. This is because the registered provider is required to pay for the plots at certain build stages during the duration of the contract, which assists private developers with their development costs.
From a VAT perspective, the registered provider will not take a transfer of the plots until they have been partially constructed to “golden brick” level, which will be treated as a zero-rated supply. Once the golden brick stage has been reached and the registered provider has taken a transfer of the partially constructed plots, the developer will be obliged under the terms of the golden brick agreement to finish construction of the plots.
As the construction of the plots progresses, the registered provider will make further payments as certain build stages are reached (for example, once a plot is watertight). There are risks to a registered provider entering into a golden brick contract. For example, a registered provider will need to ensure the golden brick contract contains appropriate provisions concerning works inspection, termination rights and “step in” rights to allow the registered provider to complete construction of the plots in the event that the golden brick contract is terminated.
A turnkey contract is often the preferred choice of contract for a registered provider when acquiring plots from a private developer. This is because the registered provider will not be required to complete the purchase of the plots until the plots are built and ready for occupation. This gives registered providers comfort that other than the deposit paid on exchange, they will not be required to pay for the plots until the point of completion and at which point they have plots ready for occupation.
Once the developer deems the plots have been completed, the developer will then serve notice on the registered provider who will then be given the opportunity to inspect the plots to ensure that they have been constructed in accordance with the terms of the contract. From a VAT perspective, the registered provider will be acquiring completed plots which will be treated as zero rated for VAT purposes.
A designated protection area (known as a DPA) is usually a rural area where social housing stock is limited and therefore there is a need to ensure that social housing stock remains within the sector. It is important for registered providers to be aware if a site they are acquiring falls within a DPA, as this could dictate whether shared ownership leases should contain capped staircasing or a mandatory buy back (however, this requirement is subject to certain exemptions).