Beeton Edwards LLP

10 things I wish I had known when I was 17

2010-03-04T13:22:00.004Z

I have 3 sons and a daughter. My eldest son is 17 years old next week and I shall be having a chat with him during his 17th year probably over a pint. There are certain things which I wish I had been told at the age of 17 which might have made things easier and which might have helped me to get to where I am now more quickly. Of course, that is not to say that any of this advice will be heeded and such is the nature of youth that you think you know better. Also some of the advice is boring and requires hard graft. I just feel it needs to be said even if it is not heeded.

So here is my list of things:

1. Read more. I am vociferously wading through loads of books now which are expanding my thoughts and giving me so many invaluable ideas. Some of the books I have read have changed my life. I just think what I could have achieved if I had read some of these books earlier in my life.

2. A goal is just a dream with a deadline attached to it. It is important to have dreams because with dreams comes passion and you need to have passion in what you do. Passion is vital. If you are not passionate about what you do then you are effectively wasting your life.

3. Analyse your gifts and your talents. What do you do that no one else does as well. What do you absolutely love doing and everyone says you do really well. It could be dealing with people, it could be working outdoors, it could be nature, working with deprived people. Then having identified them, try to build a future that incorporates those talents / gifts. Remember as Confucius said if you love what you do, you will never have to work another day in your life.

4. Avoid settling down too early. When you have a wife and children, your priorities change and it is more important to make sure you have a steady income to pay the rent and feed the hungry mouths. If you have no commitments, you can sleep on floors and live on a shoestring and sleep on sofas and it doesn't matter. I wanted to be a film composer and a good way to get into the business is to be an assistant to an established composer who will teach you the trade. However, you cannot expect to get paid for a while and so sleeping rough (even in the studio) is the reality until you get established and your mentor deems you worthy of paying. You can only do this if you have no wife and children.

5. Don't waste your life watching TV and playing video games. There really is nothing of benefit to be achieved from these activities. Sure, watch a bit of TV and play the odd game but life is so rich and so varied, there really must be better things to do with your spare time (like reading).

6. Don't lose contact with all of your friends. Your friends will do all sorts of interesting things and you never know when you can both be of mutual benefit to each other in the future. Facebook and Linked In are great for keeping in touch with a wide circle of friends even when they dissipate all over the world. Use these valuable tools and try to give some value to all of these friends.

7. Give value first. In fact, you could go further and say give without expecting to receive back. By giving without receiving you increase the respect people give to you and you increase your influence. Read Seth Godin's Linchpin on this. He is spot on in his analysis and is one of the world's great thought leaders.

8. Build relationships to further your success. Relationships are the key to the whole portfolio of skills most young people are going to need moving into the connected digital future. This links with the point about friends. However, this goes further and means you are trying if you can to build a tribe of followers. This can be done with blogs, myspace, bebo, twitter. Pick your tools.

9. Think about your core values and write them down. This is your moral compass for the life ahead. This is your code of ethics, your modus operandi. If you are religious, this is easier to do but if you are humanist, it is about treating others fairly and giving back something to society.

10. Remember to respect your family at all times. You will need them in the years ahead. They could be the best mentors you ever have. Make that weekly phonecall to your parents if you have left home, keep in touch with your siblings. Share your achievements and try to help them. Don't just see them as a source of investment or top up cash.

OK that's enough for the time being. As I said, I will have that conversation but who knows how much will go in but I have to pass it on because I wish someone had done when I was 17.

The business lessons to be learnt from Katie Price

2010-03-02T22:16:00.005Z

She provokes more scorn and derision than a career criminal and appears to lurch from one PR disaster to the next but the plain fact is Katie Price (the model formerly known as Jordan) is one of the hardest working women in glamour.

The press pour venom and vitriol on her attacking her endless cosmetic surgery enhancements and car-crash lifestyle. She even insisted her current cage-fighter boyfriend succumb to cosmetic surgery before the lucrative glossy mag photoshoot of her nuptials.

Her relationships occupy miles of column inches throughout the press but are there some business tips we can take from her? Bear in mind, she started life as a topless page 3 Sun model which traditionally is a very short career. They often say once you take your top off in modelling, this limits your options instantly and rules out a whole arena of lucrative avenues such as TV ads and television. But Katie Price is constantly reinventing herself and finding ways to leverage her fame. Her auto-biography has been published in 3 books and she has had 2 novels ghostwritten but boy do they sell staying at the top of the bestsellers lists for weeks on both sides of the pond. She has launched clothing lines, lingerie and perfumes. You name it, she has done it.

However, there is behind all of the thousands of television appearances, a strong motivation to succeed and it is clear that she must graft from dawn until dusk to keep up the phenomonal work output.

So distilling her achievements into take home lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, here is my attempt to condense this into instant wisdom:

1. Be focused in your goals and have a clear long term vision. This clearly underlies Katie's master plan.

2. Be aware that the public is fickle and needs constant stimulation. This includes courting publicity with controversy if this fits in with what you are trying to achieve.

3. Getting to be worth multiple millions, comes not from focusing on money but focusing on tirelessly battling against all adversity and external criticism and working to achieve written goals with single-minded focus. Remember you have to fight your internal demons constantly telling you to give up as well as the external demons in her case being the continual ridicule of the press.

4. Once you have achieved fame try to leverage this in as many ways as possible and then when you hit upon a winning formula really focus on producing regular dependable and saleable output which is what we have seen with her published works including a range of children's novels, one of which has been nominated for a children's book award. This takes serious effort. There may be some ghost writing involved but there is still a brand to be protected and the books have got to be readable.

5. All wealth eminates from writing. Read Scott Ginsberg's blog posts on this. Just Google that quote.

6. Identify your core strengths and then make sure that asset is protected for the future. Katie's is her looks and so the cosmetic surgery is ensuring that the phenomenon that is Katie Price continues well into her sixties and beyond just like celebrities like Joan Collins has done.

7. There is no doubt she has built up an enormous fan base and there are millions of girls who would love her life. This fan base is her instant income in whatever avenue she chooses whether it be food, equestrian products, perfumes or childrens books. Once you have a brand, it is important to keep the brand alive using creativity and innovation.

8. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. During her latest stint in the jungle, you could see that all of the other celebrities were fascinated but almost repulsed by her but she exhibited a solid feet on the ground sensibility which was surprising. She proudly introduced herself as a businesswoman and that is the reality. By some estimates she is worth in excess of £40m which is pretty good going for any business or company let alone an individual. There are undoubtedly an army of loyal staff and advisers who make this possible but there is no shame in delegation.

Look at your organisation / firm and see what lessons you can draw from her success. I would predict she will still be going strong 30 years from now with her shrewd business sense and marketing acumen. It is hard work being Katie Price though. Don't think for a minute, you achieve that without sheer grind and gritty determination.

11 Reasons Not to Negotiate a Lease Without a Legal Adviser

2010-01-08T13:46:00.005Z

In these recessionary times, it is very tempting to think you can avoid legal costs by re-using a Lease you have granted before especially if you have the Lease in electronic form. However, I have seen some real howlers which have been drafted by clients and which have ended up costing the client tens of thousand of pounds and in one case hundreds of thousand of pounds. All for the sake of a modest legal bill. You are probably not looking at more than £750 plus VAT for a simple lease with no extra documents. Here are some of the pitfalls I have come across for clients wanting to do a DIY job.

1. Rent review clauses are a minefield and a mistake can be very costly as the error will come up every time there is a rent review. An assumption the new lease is on a "best rent" can lead to a massive hike to take into account a special bidder, Landlord's trigger notices which propose an exorbitant rent and if the Tenant does not respond become binding, false assumptions which result in enhancements of the rent, an assumption that the lease being reviewed is the same as the current lease excluding rent review provisions which means the valuer assumes a lease without rent review provisions which could produce a collossal rise in the rent. I have seen all of these in DIY leases and it has cost the client dearly.

2. The Tenant's break clause is inoperable because it is subject to pre-conditions which effectively mean the Landlord can thwart the break option. For example, the break can only be operated if the Tenant has complied with all of the obligations in the Lease. Any trivial breach of the lease will render the break option inoperable. If a solicitor missed this, you would have a negligence claim just like that.

3. The Lease does not contain adaquate rights for the tenant to use the premises or grants the Landlord intrusive rights over the property which make it impossible to assign/sub-let.

4. The Lease needs registering at the Land Registry but the Lease does not contain the prescribed clauses required in order to register the lease. The Landlord then demands hefty fees to cover his legal fees in varying the lease to include the prescribed clauses.

5. The lease plan is defective and the Land Registry refuses to register the lease or a dispute later arises over what was and was not included in the demise which is only resolved by costly litigation over what the parties' intention were when they granted the lease.

6. There is no mutual enforceability covenant in the Lease so the ground floor tenant cannot get the Landlord to enforce the upstairs tenant's repairing covenants. The resulting damage to the ground floor unit caused by a leaking roof is not covered by insurance because it is a defect in the Lease and the Tenant has got anyone to sue because they dealt with the lease themselves. This was resolved by paying the Landlord a hefty premium to vary the lease.

7. The notice under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 was not served (despite the lease containing exclusion provisions) and the Tenant never made a statutory declaration so the Tenant got security of tenure. The Lease contained no rent review provisions and so the renewal negotiations broke down and the matter went to court and the court ordered highly tenant-favourable terms on renewal which the tenant then renewed a further two times. This landlord's loss was considerable because of the loss of a decent market rent and because they were stuck with an unprofitable tenant paying a very low rent for 10 years.

8. The Lease imposed unlimited service charge which resulted in a crippling liability for the tenant who went into liquidation subsequently.

9. The Lease contained extreme restrictions or an absolute prohibition on assigning, sub-letting or charging the premises which means the Lease could not be sub-let, assigned or charged. Another very costly omission.

10. The repair clause failed to take into account the dilipidated state of the premises resulting in the tenant having to put the premises back into a high standard of repair when the repairing obligation should have been qualified by reference to a schedule of condition limiting the tenant's repairing obligation to no better than the condition shown in the schedule.

11. The Lease did not exclude latent defects/environmental liability for past contamination resulting in the tenant having to repair damage caused by negligent design and to cover clean-up / remediation costs imposed by the environment agency resulting in loss running into the hundreds of thousands.

Now the cynical amongst you will say that I am bound to emphasise the importance of using a legal adviser as I have a personal interest in doing so. All I would say is that all of the above examples are based on numerous real-life examples I have come across and in practically all cases the experience was a chastening one because the losses were so large. For no more than £750 on a simple lease, you are tapping into 23 years of practical experience, 3 years at uni studying law, 1 year at law college and 2 years apprenticeship. Not a bad investment really. Is it?

Top 11 Tips for Commercial Landlords in a Recession

2009-06-11T12:56:00.001+01:00

Landlords are having a tough time at the moment with Tenants going to the wall each week. How can Landlords protect themselves from this climate of fear?

Here are our top 11 tips for landlords of commercial properties:

1. Keep a close eye on rent payment delays-this is an early warning of Tenants having difficulties

2. Check your lease terms for break options for both Landlord and Tenant. You don't want your Tenant disappearing unexpectedly. Equally if the tenant is a persistent late payer, you could be better off with a more finacially stable tenant. A Landlord's break option could be a blessing.

3. Is a rent deposit held for the tenant? Check the amount of the rent deposit and its terms for release and withdrawal.

4. Check for personal guarantees from the existing tenant/previous guarantors or guarantors under an Authorised Guarantee Agreement. You might need to tap into these resources at short notice. Be prepared.

5. Put Tenant's information on your computer with parties under the lease, guarantors names and addresses and contact details, rent payment dates, rent review dates, break dates and notice periods. This will enable you to respond at a moment's notice if there is a problem. A simple Microsoft or Google spreadsheet would be more than sufficient for the purpose.

6. Check the dilipidations situation and if necessary commission an interim schedule of dilapidations and serve a Section 146 Notice and Schedule on the Tenant and its advisers. This is usually the biggest shock for any tenant. It may be that the Landlord has to tap into a rent deposit and guarantors if the premises has been allowed to deteriorate.

7. Charge interest if Tenant is frequently late in paying rent. Many Landlords forget to this and though the interest rates are not usually high, it adds up if a Landlord has a large portfolio.

8. Beat the receiver/adminstrator/liquidator. If an adminstration or liquidation order is made then there will be moratorium on the Landlord exercising its usual remedies in the event of tenant default.

9. Discuss with the Tenant ways of alleviating pressure eg. monthly rent payments, rent holidays, rent decreases

10. Distrain for rent arrears either by seizing the Tenant's goods or by taking walking possession. This ancient remedy may disappear in the future and see Point 8 in an insolvency scenario.

11. Speak to your legal adviser about other possible solutions. There are often things which a lawyer can spot which the Landlord hasn't spotted. Send a copy of the Lease to your adviser as quickly as possible. It might save you some money.

Employee ownership of businesses

2009-12-09T12:30:00.004Z

I was listening to a fascinating podcast this morning from Peter Day's In Business Programme on BBC Radio 4. He was looking at alternative structures for organisations and in particular structures where the employees own all or part of the shares of the business. These companies have consistently out-performed the FTSE 100 companies and it is not difficult to see why. The employees have a sense of ownership in the business and have a vested interest in promoting and making the business succeed. Employees feel more fulfilled and have a direct say in how the business is run. Companies who had such schemes reported all sorts of unexpected benefits. There was an example of a construction company who had prior to the launch of the employee share scheme repeatedly lost expensive machinery. After the scheme was launched they only lost 1 machine in 17 years. This was not because employees were stealing the machines but because employees were taking more care to ensure the machines were locked away.

There are two possible ways of achieving this. One is for the employees to have shares in a trust and the trust owns the company. This has the advantage in that employees are not constantly buying and selling shares. The shareholders do not have dividends issued to them. This is how the John Lewis Partnership is constituted which has been in existence since the 1950's.

The other way is by way of direct ownership. Companies often give a percentage of the shares of the business to the employees. The percentage of shares which companies choose to distribute varies. The construction company on the podcast had handed out 25% of their shares to their employees free of charge based on the number of employees. However, there would be nothing to stop a larger percentage being distributed.

The businesses which had launched schemes highlighted on the programme varied from architectural firms to cash and carry companies.

The key point made was that in these troubled times, normal shareholders are fairly detached from the companies they invest in whereas employee shareholders have a direct impact on the business. They are not short termist but are genuine looking to build long-term sustainable growth.

There couldn't be a better time to be thinking of these structures especially as it often means that you do not have to rely on bank funding or normal equity investment to build and grow your company. Of course, if the company fails, the employees have more to lose. The recent collapse of Lehman Brothers where the loss to the employees was even more exacerbated because most of the employees had been rewarded in shares serves as a timely reminder of the downside employee ownership but may be it is no bad thing for employees to share some of the risk with the proprietors of the business.

2009-11-13T08:48:00.001Z

"Your friend is the man who knows all about you and still likes you" Elbert Hubbard

24 Things Homebuyers should look out for on an inspection

2009-11-11T13:26:00.004Z

OK so you have decided now is the time to buy a property and the estate agent has sent you a load of particulars. What should you be looking for when viewing a property? Here's 24 suggestions for you to possible consider.

1. Look out for unauthorised alterations, that is to say, which have been carried out without necessary planning permissions, building regulation approvals or if leasehold without Landlord's consent. Ask the Seller questions if they are present during the viewing. Classic issues which can arise where a property has been extended several times and outbuildings, greenhouses or conservatories which go beyond the permitted development limits. The government planning portal has good information on this which can be found here

2. Look out for other properties enjoying rights over the property. Tell tale signs might be a gate in the garden fence leading to another property or such similar signs of rights enjoyed by third parties.

3. Is the property right next to a highway maintainable at public expense or does it appear that it is necessary to pass over private land to get to the property. Ask what the rights are? Has the Seller had to contribute to maintainance of the access road? Have there been any problems using the private accessway?

4. Does the property appear to need rights over adjoining or neighbouring properties?

5. Is any part of the property subject to commons rights? These are historic rights to use land for recreation purposes, to graze cattle or to cut turf or to hunt or shoot. These rights are common in the country and not many inner city properties are affected by these rights. The local authority search should reveal commons rights registered at the County council.

6. Is the property near to a church which might result in liability to repair the chancel (the area of roof over the altar)? This liability can be substantial. A simple search can reveal if the property is within the boundaries of a parish which could have chancel repair liability.

7. Is the property on land with a potential contaminative history such as an old landfill site, old brickworks or gas works. You can sometimes tell by the name of the road the property is situated in eg. Old Brickworks Lane, Pottery Close, Station Road, Gas Works Avenue etc. There is an environmental desktop search which can reveal these matters but lots of Buyers choose not to do this search. Environmental clean up costs can run to the hundreds of thousands so it is false economy for a search which costs about £50 and takes 48 hours to do.

8. Is there a development nearby which might affect the use and enjoyment of the property? Tell-tall signs to look out for are open fields or countryside near to a modern housing estate which might have the potential for being re-designated from green field land to housing stock. Other developments can be very worrying such as large commercial redevelopment for say a supermarket or car park which could affect transport and traffic.

9. It is a good idea to come back and see the property you are interested in at 9pm on a Saturday night to see if there are noise issues or youth disorder concerns. You may also pick up on noisy neighbours and parking issues. Go undercover and do a bit of sleuthing.

10. Make enquiries of neighbours and at local shops. Do they know of any issues or problems? There is no guarantee they will tell you but it might unearth some issues.

11. What schools are in the catchment area of the property? It can be really difficult to get children into good schools out of the catchment area. What criteria do the schools apply? Do they have an admission policy? Entrance exam? These questions may not affect you but they could affect your buyer when you come to sell.

12. If the property is leasehold, is the Landlord an absentee landlord? Has this caused problems with managing and repairing the building? It is possible to get an indemnity policy to cover the risk of there being a problem but you may feel that an indemnity policy is not really a solution if the building needs repair and no one seems to be taking responsibility.

13. If the property is leasehold, is the building being well-managed? Ask the Sellers and other residents in the building. Gather as much information as possible. Have the tenants ever tried to buy the freehold? What price did they offer? Were there any tenants who did not want to participate? You need at least 50% of the flat owners to serve a notice. What are the service charge levels like? Are there any major items of expenditure looming such as lift replacement, roof repairs or car park resurfacing? All of these might affect your decision to proceed.

14. Has the property had new double glazing / front or back doors fitted since 2002? Does the Seller have building regulation approval for this or a FENSA certificate if the fitter was part of the trade association.

15. New central heating systems/boilers also need building regulation approval now. Has the system been recently replaced?

16. Is there evidence of dry or wet rot in the property? Test the window sills by gently squeezing them. Can you see woodworm in the beams if it is an old property? Does the Seller have guarantees for any woodworm treatment? These areas will be covered by your survey but the surveyor will often omit an opinion on this and suggest specialist reports.

17. Can you see any signs of subsidence, movement or settlement? Are there any large cracks in the walls? Have any underpinning works been carried out? Is there are a guarantee for the work? Do the buildings insurers cover the subsidence now?

18. Can you see any tell-tale signs of dampness in the property such as flaking paint on walls or ceilings, running water or dampness, condensation on the windows, a smell of dampness when you go in certain rooms? Ask the Seller whether the property has an effective damp course and/or ventilation. Are there any guarantees for work carried out?

19. Is the driveway to the property shared with another property? What rights would you have in respect of the drive? Could you resurface it? Who would contribute to the costs? Have there been any disputes over the use of the drive?

20. This is especially important for flats and terraced or semi-detached properties. What are the noise insulation properties of the property like? Can you hear the neighbours? Can they hear the Seller? Does the flat above have laminate or hard wood flooing? This noise can drive you mad especially late at night. Are the walls to adjoining properties paper thin? This can be a big issue for modern properties which have very insubstantial walls.

21. Do the drains pass over land privately owned or do they connect straight to mains drains in the street? Look out for inspection covers which may give clues as to the route of the drains/sewers.

22. For leasehold properties, does the flat have an allocated parking space or spaces? Where do visitors park? Is it easy for visitors to park? Is there a legal right in the lease for visitor parking? What about bicycles? Is there a cycle rack/shed? What rights are in the lease to put bicycles there? Is there a limit on how many bicycles you can park/store there?

23. For leasehold properties again situated on the upper floors, does the block have a lift ? You would be amazed how many upper floor flats have no lift access which can be a major headache for bringing furniture etc. into the Flat. Does the lift work or is permanently vandalised/broken?

24. Leasehold properties: gardens: Do you have a right to use the garden? Is this exclusive or shared with other flats? Does this cause problems? What about garden sheds and refuse areas? This can be a major issue for homebuyers and needs to be flushed out.

One final thing which you may wish to consider which is not in the standard legal enquiries, is whether the property is haunted or has experienced any paranormal activies. You may laugh but a friend of mine bought a flat and the shower doors kept exploding in the morning. Turns out the property was situated on the site of an old mental institution where many unfortunate inmates passed away in distressing circumstances. I would definitely want to know about anything like that leaving out whether I believed in ghosts or not!

Anyway, I hope you will find some of these issues helpful. They are based on issues which have been raised by clients in the past some of which have proved to be enough for the buyers to pull out. Many of the issues will be flushed out by a good thorough conveyancer and surveyor. So don't feel you need to tick off every point. It is not usual for conveyancers to inspect the property themselves but you may find that this is necessary if there are problems. Many conveyancers are happy to do this as part of their service. We certainly are so do shout if you need us to view the property with you if a particular concern arises from this checklist.

20 killer ideas for selling eco-houses

2009-10-29T08:08:00.004Z

The Government is determined that new housing stock being built by developers will be energy-efficient, sustainable and low carbon emitting and has put in place mandatory targets for developers to attain. Bearing in mind, there has not been a lot of housebuilding going on in the last 2 years, this means that developers need to be thinking about going green. Green cars (hybrids and electric cars or low-CO2 emission) sell well and all major car manufacturers are working on their own offerings. So now it is time for housebuilders to grasp the nettle. So I have set out 20 ideas to help housebuilders sell eco-friendly houses.

1. Use Google Ad words (Pay Per Click) on relevant sites/key word searches eg. green house building, eco-houses, self build, low carbon housing. If you Google these words now, you would be amazed how little there is out there at the moment.

2. Write articles on green houses and the ancillary technologies that go into them eg air to heat exchange systems, heat sinks, grey water drainage systems, solar panels. Give talks, write blogs and email newsletters. Build a following. Godin calls this permission marketing ie. don't junk mail people but obtain their permission to send them really useful and interesting content with no sales pitches included.

3. Approach local radio and TV stations (who are always desperate for content). The green angle is perceived as sexy by programme producers.

4. Raise your / your company's profile locally by sponsorship/charity/voluntary work/conservation and nature preservation work.

5. Attend trade shows eg. Eco Build to win new business.

6. Read books on sales and marketing. Listen to motivatational tapes.

7. Reward referrals handsomely and memorably.

8. Get a hip image. Think Apple. Use creativity in your marketing materials. Create a buzz. Read Seth Godin's "Purple Cow" and "Tribes" on this.

9. Make your web site easy enough that a 5 year old child can understand it. Don't have technical jargon or scientific papers. It's neither big nor clever.

10. Use social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Diggit) to build connections but not repeat not to advertise your services unless you want a load of hatemail and service denial attacks.

11. Think of publicity stunts that get the brand known. Richard Branson is the master of this. Use traditional media and the internet to create a viral buzz. Read De Bono's "Serious Creativity" to generate some ideas for stunts.

12. Write to celebrities with known green credentials to endorse your products eg. David Attenborough, Ray Mears, Mark Constantine of Lush Cosmetics, Prince Charles (though for the latter make sure your houses have the highest and most aesthetic architectural standards or he will think it is a "carbunkle").

13. Put your company forward for green housebuilding awards. There are loads of them. Find out the criteria and start applying.

14. Reach out for mentors / visionaries either here in the UK or abroad who could evangelise for you and your company.

15. Find rich benefactors/retired entrepreneurs who in their twilight years want to save the planet and who might let you build on their land provided it was a zero-carbon development.

16. Use humour in your marketing. If you are building with lime and hemp, make jokes about hemp=dope=funny!

17. Target and educate young people and women and the grey market on eco-housebuilding via known forums such as the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, Wales, Eden Project, Cornwall, the Science Museum in South Kensington or the Royal Agricultural Society for England. Hold seminars, free lectures. Work hard at building and spreading the word.

18. Create a groundswell of public demand. Make the houses highly sought after but don't flood the market. Create a scarcity atmosphere using viral marketing techniques. Make landowners/mass housebuilders want to buy your product.

19. Use guerilla tactics to raise awareness of the corruption and vested interests in existing housebuilding with concrete and brick eg. cycle go slows in major cities, chaining to railings, You Tube campaigns. Appeal to the radical hippies of the sixties many of whom are in very high places now.

20. Use puppy dog closes to sell to the public ie. rent our eco house and experience the warmth and comfort before you buy.

Just some out of the box ideas for you to be thinking about. Go on make it happen!

25 Tips on Selling/Letting Commercial Properties More Quickly

2009-10-08T13:29:00.003+01:00

I have been dealing with the legal aspects of the sale and letting of commercial properties for 24 years now and in that time have noticed what can really help a property fly off the shelf and race to completion. In the current climate, buyers / tenants are nervous, cautious, constantly re-evaluating their cash flow situation and even when they have agreed terms on a purchase or lease, deals frequently collapse because the Tenant / Buyer gets cold feet.

Therefore, it is vital that Sellers / Landlords sell / let more quickly and more effectively because the number of buyers/potential tenants is vastly reduced.

Here are some tips for speeding up the whole process and for increasing sales:

1. Get a comprehensive seller's / letting pack together including searches (Local Authority Search, Environmental Search, Drainage Search, Chancel Check), up to date title entries and filed plan, replies to CPSE standard commercial enquiries, copy planning permissions, building regulation approvals. Get all this information scanned and put up on a web site or put on to a CD so that when you have a buyer/tenant they can start looking at the pack and get their solicitors instructed without weeks of delay waiting for searches. This is the same concept which has been used in the residential market with HIPS packs but the difference is you seller's / Letting pack will be completely definitive. This will mean you can apply extreme pressure on the Buyer/Tenant to exchange within say 14 days because there is nothing further to request or which could cause delay. This also flushes out time-wasters much more quickly.

2. Commission an Energy Performance Certificate and include this in the Seller's / Letting pack. These are compulsory for all but the smallest properties. They take about a week to organise but it can cause delay if left till later in the transaction.

3. Ensure you have an asbestos survey report for the property. It is a legal requirement to have one and again it can cause delay if this is left till later in the transaction. Get it sorted immediately before the property is put on the market. Put it in the seller's pack.

4. Ensure you have a fire risk assessment on the building/common parts where the unit being sold or let is part of a building/estate. Get this put on the Seller's pack CD/website.

5. Ensure you a building regulations completion certificate for all works and alterations carried out to the property. This causes massive delays and is often one of the last things holding up exchange. Get it sorted now and pre-empt the Buyer's solicitor's enquiries.

6. Ensure you have comprehensive planning documenation for the building/site including copies of all planning permssions, evidence of compliance of all planning conditions. This is another thing which causes unbelievable delay. It does cost money but it is well worth it.

7. Ensure you have a Land Registry compliant plan of the property being sold/let. This means that it must be to a recognisable scale, have a north point and have sufficient identifying features on it so that the Land Registry can plot it on to the Filed Plan. Many developer clients have software which can easily produce compliant plans or there are some very good companies who can produce fantastic compliant plans at very reasonable prices. Get it sorted before the transaction gets going.

8. On a new build, get the collateral warranties sorted out well in advance from the professionals involved in the build eg. architects, structural engineers, electrical contractors, steel frame contractors. Get them to sign the warranties prior to the sale/letting. Get a copy of their indemnity insurance policy and their confirmation on how many times the warranties can be assigned.

9. Ensure that the Lease is Lease Code Compliant to speed up negotiations. The Code for Leasing Business Premises in England and Wales 2007 is the result of collaboration between commercial property professionals and industry bodies representing both owners (Landlords) and occupiers (Tenants).

The Code aims to promote fairness in commercial leases, and recognises a need to increase awareness of property issues, especially among small businesses, ensuring that occupiers of business premises have the information necessary to negotiate the best deal available to them.

10. Make sure the Heads of Terms are comprehensive by involving the solicitor in the preparation of the draft. This can massively speed up the process of negotiation because although not contractually binding, it is very hard to go back on what is set out in the Heads of Terms from a tactical point of view.

11. Use Google Sketchup (free software) to produce an electronic mock-up of the building to save stupid questions from the lawyers and endless site visits. The link is here http://sketchup.google.com/

12. Produce a directory of services useful to a business occupying your building. Start ups need recommendations for accountants, solicitors, bankers, website designers, printers, signage companies. Have a list already to add value as a Landlord / Seller.

13. Create a database of your existing tenants and build relationships with them by having a monthly email newsletter. This could mean that tenants will stay loyal to you as a Landlord or purchaser will buy from you again. The relationship between landlord and tenant is a partnership not unlike marriage. Court and woo your potential tenants as you would were you a suitor. This is just an office building but a Bloggs Building. Create a legend.

14. Email / blog your followers / fans / customers / agents with useful information about capital allowances, ways of reducing energy bills. Become a resource before you sell/let.

15. Consider being a green landlord. Alter construct your building to improve its energy efficiency. Install solar panels, greywater systems, heat sinks, air to heat exchange heating systems, lime and hemp walls. There may be government grants available. There are capital allowances for energy efficient plant and machinery.

16. Give talks highlighting your product at Chamber of Commerce, networking breakfasts etc.

17. Use creativity in designing your sales literature, business cards.

18. Use a puppy dog close to secure sales/lettings. For example, take the unit on a serviced licence to occupy basis before you take a longer term lease.

19. Offer flexible renting terms eg annual breaks for Tenant only, up and down rent reviews, service charge caps/ceilings, turnover rents, monthly rental payments. It's a tough market. Differentiate by being flexible.

20. Use video testimonials of satisfied buyers/tenants. Emphasise long-term relationships with your buyers/tenants.

21. Offer start up finance backed with suitable collateral security to fund the tenant's fit out costs and then rentalise the improvements.

22. Offer discounted prices on office furniture with a hook-up with a local supplier.

23. Aim to win awards for your buildings whether for being green or for being a considerate landlord. Make tenants/buyers want to be part of the buzz around your company.

24. Define a Unique Selling Proposition for your product, something for which you can be famous for. The most luxurious, the most energy efficient, the greenest, the most hi-tech. Media outlets love superlatives. So does Google.

25. Get comprehensive service charge information collated prior to marketing showing the last 3 years audited service charge accounts, receipts for expenditure, financial projections.

There's a few ideas to be getting on with. It's all about standing out from the market. There is so much vacant commercial property stock just sitting there in industrial parks, high streets, business parks which shouldn't be unlet/unsold. Take your product out to the market. Just like in Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, when Gordon goes out into the streets with samples of the food. Take the message to the people. The old ways of print and TV advertising are dying. Have a paradigm shift. Re-think your sales and marketing strategy. Think bold. God speed!

12 Ways to Win New Business in a Downturn

2009-10-05T13:53:00.004+01:00

Are we in recession or out of recession? Are we in recovery? Who knows? What everyone knows is that it is very tough winning new business at the moment. Of course, doing nothing is not an option. So what do you do? Here are a few hints and tips:

1. Speak to your existing clients/customers and establish if they have any needs in other areas other than the usual area you do business. Where they aware you covered other areas? This will also build loyalty in a time when your competitors will be doing everything they can steal your clients/customers.

2. Improve/raise your personal brand by giving talks to networking clubs, civic groups, Chamber of Commerce etc. Network at networking events. Write articles in the relevant trade press, on blogs, press advertorials. Persuade your local paper to give you a column in which you give useful hints and tips. Get involved in charity work. Don't forget it's not who you know but who knows you.

3. Help your clients and customers find new customers/clients by introductions / referrals, with sales tips and articles. Become a resource. Give value first.

4. Provide legendary client service. Look for the WOW factor, go way beyond the service provided by your rivals/competitors, innovate. Build partnerships with clients. Ensure consistency throughout your whole organisation with training and incentives.

5. Use the power of the Internet/Social Media. Get on Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube. Optimise your ranking on Google with Search Optimisation. If you don't know how to do this get a specialist company involved. Get involved in Ad Words and Pay Per Click via Google.

6. Use Blogs/Email Newsletters to build loyalty/followings and to extend your range to prospects.

7. Sharpen Your Saw. Read books, listen to CD's, podcasts, subscribe to relevant blogs and email newsletters. Increase your knowledge every day. Write something everyday. Remember writing is the source of all wealth.

8. Use humour in your presentations, your literature, your presentations. People love to laugh and will be more receptive to your message.

9. Avoid cold selling at all costs. It hardly ever works. Make people seek you out. Make warm contacts and nuture warm prospects with networking and email newsletters.

10. Perservere. It takes 6-8 contacts with a prospect before they will be ready to buy.

11. Work harder and longer than all of your competitors/rivals. Stop whining, whinge-ing and complaining. Take responsibility for your own actions. You are where you are today because of your own actions. People will promote / give you a pay rise if they absolutely have to and only then. Make a sure-fire case. Make your bosses worry that they will lose you. Don't blame others eg. your boss, your health, your wife, your energy levels, your line manager. Just get fighting. You only have one life. Don't waste your time watching endless repeats and mindless pap on the TV. Use your evenings constructively. Get up an hour earlier and get blogging.

12. Be flexible and creative in your quotes for new business. People are looking for bargains. There are many ways to skin a cat. Use your imagination to differentiate.

Oh that all sounds like hard work. Yup! Sure is. Sheer hard graft. I'm sorry but that is where we find ourselves. However, follow the majority of the advice above and you will be amazed how fulfilling your life will become. Trust me, I am living this advice.

24 ways to become a greener tenant/occupier

2009-09-23T13:42:00.004+01:00

In the UK with the introduction of legislation making it compulsory for all Landlords and Sellers of both commercial and residential properties to have an Energy Performance Certificates for all properties, the public are becoming more aware of just how inefficient some buildings are. This has an impact on energy bills. Some experts are predicting that this could lead to a two-tier market with many tenants/purchasers staying clear of energy inefficent buildings.

However, if you are not planning to move properties, is there anything a tenant or occupier can do so that they are improving the carbon footprint as a business.

Here are 24 ways for tenants/occupiers to become greener:

1. Consider switching energy suppliers to suppliers who obtain their power from renewable sources. Many of the large energy companies have so-called "green tariffs" and all energy companies are required by law to obtain a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources but Ecotricity (http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/) leads the way in suppliers spending £410.49 in 2008 per customer on constructing new renewable energy sources.

2. Consider fitting solar panels to the roof of your offices, factory, industrial unit. There may be government grants available for these works. The payback can be a very long time and you may need Landlord's consent if you are a tenant.

3. Replace all lightbulbs with energy saving bulbs. It is strange that lots of businesses are outstanding green at home but leave their green credentials at home when they come to work.

4. Buy your employees bicycles. The Bike to Work scheme is very favourable and a very cheap perk for employers to offer to their staff. There are hundreds of schemes in operation. There is also information on the government's web site. See link below

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/cycling/cycletoworkschemeimplementat5732

5. Reward staff who walk to work eg. offer to buy them a pair of trainers if they can prove that they have walked to work for a consecutive period of say 6 months.

6. Fill cavity walls and install loft insulation. Just as important for commercial buildings as it is for homes.

7. Use eco-friendly cleaning products such as Ecover

8. Use recycled stationery and notepaper. Available from most suppliers and printers now at reasonable prices. No excuse for not doing this really.

9. Use plug boards which automatically switch off monitors, printers and copiers and any other machines and office equipment that don't need to be kept on at night.

10. Install staff showers and cycle racks to encourage staff to cycle to work.

11. Instigate car shares with available lifts advertised on the company's intranet or on a noticeboard. Have simple written agreements made to give staff to cover cost sharing and liability.

12. Make it easy for staff to work at home by setting up secure internet access via VPN or Citrix or other secure systems. Consider funding home broadband costs.

13. Encourage all staff to use email instead of post. Scan in attachments and don't send a hard copy of the letter as well. Great for getting round postal strikes this one.

14. Scan all incoming mail to assist staff working at home. Move towards a paperless office.

15. Get a green building constructed for you or have your building retro-fitted to be energy-efficient. There are many innovations that can produce astonishing results such as lime and hemp walls, air to heat exchange heating systems, grey water drainage systems, heat sinks.

16. Buy a gas-powered or electric-powered company minibus and collect employees from their homes instead of them driving the work.

17. Provide interest free loans to staff to enable them to buy electric or hybrid cars.

18. Reward staff who come up with green ideas or practices with an extra day's holiday or green vouchers purchasing green products.

19. Highlight the best green ideas/products on the web site to encourage staff to be more green both at work and home.

20. Give gifts from green suppliers eg. solar powered battery packs for mobile phones and mp3 players.

21. Ensure all of your catering is locally sourced to minimise "food miles". Ask questions of your existing suppliers and threaten to withdraw your business unless they give assurances that their food is locally sourced.

22. Switch tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits to fair trade.

23. Use video-conferencing to minimise unnecessary travel between offices or between clients and your offices.

24. Give time off to staff to do green activities such as voluntary work for local wildlife trusts. This raises morale and could be a cheap way to incentivise staff. A lot of these wildlife trusts have corporate schemes which can be used as team-building activities.

A happy accident: 2 books that changed my life

2009-08-07T13:12:00.005+01:00

I was sent a couple of books by my brother by accident a couple of years ago. He got confused with Amazon One-Click and hey presto! I was the proud recipient of Leo Hickman's Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying to Live Ethically
and Felicity Lawrence's Not on the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate. I phoned my brother and thanked him for very kind generosity and he cursed his incompetence but did have the good grace not to ask me to send the books back (he had only intended to send me a CD which I had also received-not a CD and 2 books).

Leo Hickman writes for The Guardian and his book recounts in a very amusing and light-hearted fashion his attempts to lead a more green and ethical life. He tells tales of his struggles with a wormery that gets out of hand. He has 3 experts who give his life an ethical audit and despite having no car, he gets a strict dressing-down from the experts. Since reading that book, I have too embraced the ethical way which ends up being a series of compromises. Whilst I try my hardest to lead a life which is both green and ethical, it is difficult to impose these standards on my wife and 4 children. I try to lead by example and we don't do badly. We recycle everything that is recyclable. I often buy books from 2nd hand book shops. When read, I drop the books off to Oxfam. I compose decomposable waste and use it on my garden. I don't have a water barrel -tut! tut! My car is not electric but it is a Renault CO2 low carbon Clio (139kg of CO2 per mile). I use Lush products which are made without animal testing from fresh natural ingredients with hardly any packaging which includes solid shampoos and moisturisers in containers which Lush takes back. I have struggled with solid deodorants which don't work and you start whiffing at about 4pm which is very unpleasant for all concerned! I then got involved in developing the Social Responsibility Policy for my last law firm and this policy is now being rolled out firm-wide so I have left a legacy of good work there. Ultimately, I would like my new firm's offices to be constructed from Lime and Hemp by my client who builds eco-sustainable housing but this is a little way off yet. So all in all this book has had a massive impact on my life but leading an ethical life is a series of compromises. A trade off between one value and another and it leaves you with a constant state of feeling slightly guilty. A strongly recommended thought-provoking read.

Felicity Lawrence also writes for The Guardian and her book lifts the lid on the so-called green credentials of some of the big supermarkets. This uncovers some of the disturbing facts about some of the most frequently purchased food items in supermarkets including chicken, eggs and salad. A lot of this has been covered since by Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall in their Channel 4 TV programmes but there are some truly nightmarish facts in this book which are likely to alter your eating habits very rapidly. It won't make you vegetarian but it may push you further to the organic/free range/local produce range of foodstuffs. Another cracking read.

23 Tips for Developers Selling Residential Properties

2009-08-27T08:37:00.004+01:00

The press is awash with reports of green shoots. The stock market is surging with confidence that the recession is over but the fact remains it is still a very tough market for developers selling new and refurbished properties in the UK.

Here are some hints, tips and ideas which might just assist in the current climate.

1. What does your brand stand for? It is important to have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or a set of values so that buyers can choose your brand because there is a lot of property on the market. Do you stand for quality luxury homes, minimalist masterpieces? homes for young professionals. Who are your target customers? Where do they eat, play, work? Build a profile and this will help your marketing to be targeted and focused.

2. Start with your past satisfied customers. What can you learn from them, their feedback, comments, suggestions. How can you build a long-term relationship with them so that they are raving from the rooftops about you and will also use you again when they move. Have a professional Client Relationship Management Software program to ensure you can mailshot and keep in contact with your past customers/clients.

3. Create the WOW factor on sales. This needs creativity but flowers in a vase in their new home on the day of completion, a chilled bottle of Champagne in the fridge etc etc. Get people talking about you and saying "Wow!" this developers are amazing. It's often small details that really blow people away.

4. Get writing. Write blogs, e-zines, tweets on Twitter. Get your core values across. Write useful articles which are useful to homeowners eg. how to get planning permission for alterations, improving the energy efficiency of your home quoting a list of reputable suppliers who can install wind turbines, grey water systesm, solar panels etc. Remember is not who you know but who knows you which will determine if buyers select your product.

5. Give talks to local community business groups Chamber of Commerce, networking and breakfast clubs. Get your company's name out there.

6. Become known in the community for getting involved in good works by joining organisations like Rotarians, Lions, Round Table, Masons. Raise your personal profile.

7. Use video testimonials on your web site, blogs and on presentations on your laptop showing satisfied customers singing your praises. Get the customers to address in the video specific objections which potential buyers might have such as your homes/flats being slightly more expensive than your average housebuilder but they are high quality built to last and more substantial than the cardboard and foil houses built by Bloggs Developments. Get a professional company to do the video as you do not want it to be tacky. Post the video on You Tube. Starting building the legend.

8. Reward referrals of customers/clients handsomely and creatively. Send a voucher for a luxury hotel, sought after tickets to a local sports match etc.

9. Use creativity in designing your business cards, stationery, marketing material. Make sure people are talking about your company when you hand out your cards. Beeton Edwards' cards are made from unwanted junkmail and embedded with wildflower seeds so when you throw the away they turn into beautiful flowers. People go crazy for this idea.

10. Use a puppy dog close to secure a customer. Rent our house for a drastically reduced rent and if you like it after 6 months talk to us about buying the house.

11. Use innovation / creativity to differentiate your product.
Solar panels, heat sinks, lime and hemp walls, grey water systems. Something that grabs headlines, makes people sit up, attracts press attention. Read Edward de Bono's "Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas" or Michael Michalka's "Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques" for guidance on using creativity/innovation in your organisation.

12. New homeowners invariably need the same things when they move into a house.
-new curtains
-plants, shrubs
-decking
-garden furniture
-hardwood flooring
-furniture

Design an attractive looking information sheet prepared with a list of suppliers with telephone nos. addresses, directions may be with discounts already negotiated on presentation of the information sheets/vouchers etc.

13. New homeowner need information on schools, colleges, pre-schools, churches, clubs, societies, sports teams.

Prepare an attractively designed information sheet with details of all the local schools with the headmaster's name and contact details. Include testimonials on the schools or links to the League Tables published on the government websites so they can choose which school. Consider giving out these information sheets at the enquiry stage so people can be wowed by your attention to detail. Local churches could have church times. Sports and social clubs could have details of membership fees and joining requirements. This document will take a long time to put together but it will be an invaluable resource. Get it laminated so it is constantly being referred to and make sure your branding is all over it.

14. Inform the buying process. Go beyond the normal Pre-Contract Enquiries information and try to pre-empt the Additional Enquiries which solicitors might raise and present the information in an innovative way. The sheet could contain Rates and water rates information (rateable value, multipliers etc.) Council tax information, cable TV suppliers, Broadband suppliers with their comparitive speeds and details of any extra equipment needed. Details of neighbourhood watch schemes, residents associations.

Find out if the potential buyers have any specialist hobbies or activities eg. if they were a mad keen cyclist you could tailor the information sheet to include specialist cycle shops, details of local cycle clubs. If they were a keen musician give details of the local MU representative, local pubs with live music, local music shops supplying equipment.

It is hard work but you are creating the most amazing resource. I hear your outrage. I am housebuilder not a blasted Information Centre. Trust me on this. You will blow the competition out of the water if you do this well.

15. Work ten times harder than the competition. Start work earlier and finish later than your competitors and leave them wondering how you gained the edge on them.

16. Improve your personal learning. Sharpen your saw as Stephen Covey, author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" says. Read books on management, selling, self-improvement. Listen to self-improvement tapes. Attend seminars. Learning is a life-long process. New ideas could have a dramatic effect on your success as a business. Read Jeffrey Gitomer's "The Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness". Rated as one of the best business books in the world-it's dynamite. Just hope your competitors don't read it too as life could get interesting.

17. Find a mentor or two who has made a fortune selling houses. They are sure to be full of gems and pearls of wisdom and may want to give back to the industry and give you a helping hand with contacts, leads etc.

18. Cultivate the right friendships. Move in the right circles whether it be golf, shooting, cycling, polo, opera, theatre. Get friendly with the right type of person who will become your friend and then a potential buyer or referrer of business.

19. Write your financial and strategic goals down and keep reading those goals every morning. Put them on the bathroom mirror, the sun visor of your car. Somewhere where you will keep seeing it. Visualise the goal being achieved. Read Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich". Goals that get written down get achieved.

20. Use humour in your literature. People love to laugh. This could be a print newsletter, e-zine, blog etc.

21. Get your sales force professional trained. They all need to know all of this stuff. People loving buying but hate being sold to. Make sure your sales force are trained properly by an outside professional. It will be money well spent.

22. Hold weekly sales meetings which are engaging, fun and involving. Get in good cakes and luxury coffee.

23. Reward the right values in your sales staff ie. not just sales achieved but positive testimonials from clients, referrals from other agents due to legendary service provided, repeat business from satisfied existing customers. Reward the sales staff who are building relationships and using innovation and creativity.

I hope that has created some food for thought. It's a tough market but there are buyers out there. The landscape is a bit more brutal though and buyers are pulling out and time-wasting especially as they don't have to do local searches anymore. They are viewing, requesting HIPS packs and so it is important to stand out from the pack. Happy selling!

10 Ways to Speed up a Commercial Property Transaction

2009-08-07T14:06:00.001+01:00

One of the most frequent complaints clients make in relation to commercial property transactions is how long it takes to progress a sale or purchase or the grant of a new lease. However, there are several things that clients can do to speed up the process.

1. Get lawyers involved at the Heads of Terms stage. This avoids lengthy negotiations on key points later. Some parties will refuse to concede a point in later negotiations if it stated in black and white in the Heads of Terms even though they are not contractually binding.

2. Get the Seller's solicitors or Landlord Solicitor's to send out the documents electronically so that the Buyer's solicitors/Tenant's Solicitors can amend up electronically which saves time when preparing final engrossments for signature, saves money on copying multi-coloured drafts, saves legal time in trying to decipher illegible hand-written scrawl.

3. Use email and telephone/text instead of fax and letter throughout the transaction. Seems obvious but you would be amazed how many solicitors still use snail mail adding weeks to a transaction.

4. Consider a well-structured time-limited face to face meeting if there are a host of sticking points to avoid lawyers getting entrenched in legal minutiae and cracking up obscene levels of costs.

5. Hand deliver documents to speed up the final signing and completion. Another obvious one but often over-looked. Not always possible if your lawyer is miles away.

6. Set up arrangements and protocols with like minded solicitors firms to agree on the use of standard PLC documents, PLC pre-contract enquiries and to agree that no unnecessary enquiries are raised.

7. Seller/Landlord supplies a "Sellers Pack" like a HIPS pack but much more comprehensive including all relevant title documents, replies to CPSE enquiries, copy planning documents, Building regulation approvals, asbestos survey reports, Energy Performance Certificates, Disability Discrimination Audits to avoid unnecessary enquiries. Consider putting a local authority search, chancel check, drainage search and environmental report which will save weeks in delays waiting for these searches. An information sheet summarising key title issues and replies to pre-contract enquiries similar to that provided on new builds can be enormously helpful to a Buyer's/Tenant's solicitor.

8. Get estate layout plans approved well in advance of any plot sales by the Land Registry and get the Land Registry to approve any lease or Transfer in advance to flush out any boundary issues or future title requisitions saving everyone time when submitting searches and their applications for registration.

9. Get Tenants to prepare a pack of references in advance for Landlords in connection with applications for licence to assign/sub-let. These take ages to organise and can hold up the issue of a draft licence to assign/licence to underlet.

10. Get your lawyers to use case management software to speed up the process of document creation and workflow.

The legal process can be accelerated by adopting some of the suggestions referred to above. There may be many other ways of speeding the legal process. We specialise in creating new and innovative ways of speeding up the process. Have a word and we will get our green thinking hats on (a reference to the legendary thinking professor, Edward De Bono's book "Six Thinking Hats")

What Would Google Do?

2009-06-23T14:26:00.000+01:00

I have just read a fantastic book by Jeff Jarvis entitled "What Would Google Do?" Without involving Google, Jeff has written a book in which he tries to analyse the phenomenal success of Google and break this down into principles. These principles and concepts include such maxims as "Do what you do best and then link to the rest". This is the idea that because there is so much useful content on the web, there is no point reinventing the wheel but focus on what you do and write about best and then create links to the other areas. By creating links this increases your "Googlejuice" which is the term for how strong your rating is on the Google search engines and so how high you will appear on the search results.

Other concepts include think niche, think distributed. Your worst customer is your best friend and your best customer is your partner. This gives advice on how to deal with negative copy on the web whether by comments on a blog, a separate blog or website.

Jeff then applies these Google laws and applies them to various businesses and industries such as book publishing, newspapers, banking, venture capitalism, health, politics and retail.

I would strongly recommend getting hold of a copy of this book. It is the sort of book that makes you re-think your whole attitude to doing business. It makes you think in a global way and helps you understand the new business landscape that is opening in the wake of the post-credit crunch crisis. It explains the whole concept of the free economy and gives concrete advice on how to make money in the new Google era. It really is the sort of book that urgently needs to be read to avoid falling victim to the companies who understand the web and its power.

10 Howlers to look out for in a Lease

2009-07-27T13:34:00.000+01:00

There are some very serious defects which can be found in leases. These defects can be like time bombs ticking away waiting for a prospective assignee to find them. Then all of a sudden you have a lease which you cannot assign without obtaining a Deed of Variation from the Landlord and guess what? He wants some money if he is going to allow you to vary the Lease.

Here are some of the 10 most serious howlers I have found in existing Leases:

1. The term is defined as including the holding over period under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 which means that according to a recent High Court case that this is not a lease with a term certain and so the exclusion order/Tenant's declaration is ineffective and the Tenant gets security of tenure. This is a very common defect found in a lot of leases.

2. The rent review is triggered by a notice from the Landlord and if the Tenant does not respond with a counter notice within a set period of time, the new rent is fixed at the Landlord's figure. The Landlord will naturally put a very high figure in the Landlord's notice expecting to get beaten down by the Tenant or its surveyor but if the Tenant does not respond and often there is a very short time limit to respond, the Tenant becomes contractually bound to pay the new rent. This may bankrupt the Tenant instantly.

3. The break clause is subject to a pre-condition that the Tenant must have complied with all of the obligations in the Lease. This is always intepreted strictly by the courts and effectively means that the Tenant can never operate its break option because there is always bound to be some minor breach of the Lease which will prevent the exercise. Even if the wording is qualified to "material breaches" only, it can still thwart the Tenant's break option. A very common defect found in many leases.

4. There is no forfeiture clause in the Lease or (in relation to a residential Lease) the lease may be forfeited in the event of bankruptcy of the Tenant. Both these defects makes a residential lease unmortgageable/impossible to assign.

5. The rent review provisions in a commercial lease provide for the rent to be reviewed to the higher of retail use or leisure use when the user covenant only permits one of those leisure use (or vice versa). This means the Landlord can pick the most favourable use from a rent review whilst the Tenant is limited to the one use.

6. No mutual enforceability covenant from the Landlord on a multi-let building or a lease of part. This can mean that the ground floor shop tenant cannot do anything about the state of repair of the roof which is leaking into their unit. The tenants above may be absent or unwilling to carry out repairs and there is nothing the ground floor tenant can do about it.

7. No rights of way over estate roads on a lease on a business park or estate. Sounds obvious but a very common error and of course, this could be disastrous or very costly to rectify.

8. No obligation on the Landlord to provide services to the building on a lease of part of the building but the Tenant still has an obligation to pay the service charge. Quite a common defect.

9. Time is of the essence in a rent review. This is particularly of concern where the Tenant has to respond to a Landlord's notice (see 2 above).

10. There are no rent suspension provisions in the Lease in the event of damage, destruction of the building such that the Tenant cannot occupy its premises.

I am sure there are many other howlers which you may have found. It is always a good idea to get a lease checked out by a lawyer before committing in relation to a leasehold property because of the flaws which may be contained in the document.

Not in my backyard-Sainsburys destroys village businesses

2009-07-27T13:08:00.000+01:00

I moved to Bishops Waltham in 1996 from the smog of London. I was attracted by its village atmosphere, tight-knit community and thriving local shops. Bishops Waltham (made recently famous by the being the home of Amanda Holden for many years during her childhood) has changed since then. More and more houses have been built and suddenly it has appeared on the Big Supermarkets' radar. Sainsbury is proposing constructing a huge store on the site of the former Abbey Mill Business Park. So what's new? This is happening to thousands of rural communities not just in this country but all over Europe. It is weird when you read about it happening to other villages etc you empathise but not half as much when it happens on your doorstep and everything that you hold dear and value is being challenged. Bishops Waltham has a fishmonger, baker, greengrocer, butcher, coffee shop, delicatessen and numerous other shops which all thrive. The traders all help each other out and they all do very well. In one fell swoop Sainsbury will gradually kill off all of these businesses and we will all be poorer for that.

Why does Sainsbury want to open in a village when it has one of the largest superstores in the UK at Hedge End only 15 minutes drive away. There is also large Sainsburys stores at Eastleigh and Fareham also only 15 minutes drive away. I am sure Sainsburys knows just what it is doing and has done its demographics scrupulously. They would not be going to the expense of defending a public inquiry and mailshotting every house in Bishops Waltham putting their side of the argument, if there was not some serious money to be made.

So the damage was done when the planners permitted intensive housing development in Bishops Waltham increasing the population to a size where it suddenly becomes viable for Sainsburys to build a £1m store in a rural village. There is no winding back of the clock. Pandora is out of the box.

In the meantime, we will all fight and do everything we can to stop this destruction and you might wish to log on to the dedicated action group website to prevent this action. The web site link is below.

http://www.bwactiongroup.org.uk/

Solicitors protest against "Tesco Law"

2009-06-16T10:27:00.000+01:00

You may have seen in the news a group of solicitors protesting outside of the Royal Courts of Justice about the prospect of supermarkets banks and other non-legal firms offering legal services. They handed out cans of baked beans labelled "Legal Services by Supermarkets is as ridiculous as lawyers selling beans".

Isn't this typical of the legal profession. Opposing competition, 19 months after the passing of the Legal Services Act 2007. Lawyers will not be able to wind the clock back. Pandora is out her box. Solicitors have lost their monopoly.

It would have been far better for solicitors to think how they are going to improve their service rather than expect sympathy from the public by protesting outside the Law Courts. For years solicitors have dispensed diabolical service, with scant disregard for commercial realities and the client's objectives. It is high time the profession had a shake up.

I for one welcome the competition. Tescos and other big legal providers are unlikely to have large in-house legal departments. They will create panels of solicitors who will have to adhere to strict Service Level Agreements which if breached will result in termination of their contracts. They will initially pitch fees at an attractive level for solicitors to build up good quality panels but like the dairy farmers and poultry producers they will then be squeezed and in the end it will only be the law firms who run their operation on industrial factory farming principles who will be able to make a profit.

Will clients benefit from this factory model? Well it will certainly be fixed fees and cheaper than your current high street conveyancer. However, the nature of the operation will mean you are unlikely to be dealing with a qualified solicitor. This may not matter because most people just need to know where they are in the transaction which is mainly an information-giving process.

What should solicitors do? Well, they are still (remarkably) trusted by the vast majority of the public. I believe that providing outstanding levels of personal customised service is the key to the "Tesco Law" alternative. Check out our Client Service Commitments on our web site for an idea of the level of service which law firms will need in order to compete in the new legal market.

10 Top Tips for Commercial Tenants in Crisis

2009-07-08T13:36:00.000+01:00

In a previous post, I gave Landlords top tips for dealing with Tenants in financial difficulties. In this posting, I set out 10 top tips for Tenants who are struggling in the current financial conditions. Here are the points which Tenants should think about:

1. Check your lease for break clauses to get out of your lease early. Make sure there are no onerous pre-conditions to exercise the break such as compliance with the Lease covenants and if so get advice on whether this will prevent operation of the break option.

2. Is the Lease assignable or sub-lettable? If so, check pre-conditions, obligations to provide Authorised Guarantee Agreements and personal guarantees and rent deposits.

3. Negotiate monthly rent payments with the Landlord or rent holiday or a rent decrease

4. Negotiate surrender of Lease with your Landlord. The Landlord may well want a surrender premium. The premium should equate to the time it takes the Landlord to re-let the premises but the Landlord might consider it should equate to the rent the Landlord is owed for the residue of the term.

5. Negotiate a release of any personal guarantees given to the Landlord. Of course, the Landlord will want money for this and is extremely unlikely to concede but no harm in asking.

6. Tenant could consider liquidating the company if it is trading as a limited company. There is a possibility that the directors could be sued by creditors for wrongful trading or trying to avoid paying creditors and might even result in directors being disqualified from acting as a company director.

7. The Tenant could speak to business recovery specialists/insolvency practioners with regards to a pre-pack adminstration. Again, this needs proper advice and may not always be available as an option.

8. The Tenant could find a sub-tenant to take the premises or part of the premises on a Sub-Lease.

9. The Tenant could open a discussion with the Landlord and its surveyors to come clean about the position and try to find a solution. It is in the Landlord's interests to have a dialogue and it may be that an innovative solution can be found.

10. The Tenant could speak to his solicitor to see if there are any other options which might be available.

The one thing a tenant should not do is bury its head in the sand and hope the issue will go away. It is always a good idea to confront the issue head on and get some good advice. The situation may be better than the Tenant thinks.

Welcome to the Beeton Edwards Blog

2009-06-11T11:36:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the new firm of Beeton Edwards LLP, a niche property practice based in Southampton.

We specialise in developing innovative solutions for clients to speed up the legal process. We will provide legendary client service to all of our clients.

We will provide exceptional value to you and your business by giving you the advice and ideas that will make your business profitable and successful in these challenging economic times.

Check out our blogs and email newsletters if you are not already subscribers which we will be launching in June. They are packed full of useful advice to help your businesses.

Contact us today to experience a different type of law firm. We think you will be delighted.