Selling part of a Commercial Property

There are a number of matters which should be considered before selling part of a commercial property.

These are as follows:

Rights

It might be necessary for rights to be granted for the benefit of the land being sold and rights to be reserved for the land that is being retained. For example, if we are acting for the buyer and access to the land being purchased cannot be gained directly from the public highway, it would be necessary for a right of way to be granted over the seller’s retained land.

Any rights that are required should be expressly included in the legal transfer and then registered at the Land Registry so that they become binding on any future owners of either piece of land.

Obligations

We recommend you consider who will cover the cost of anything that is going to be shared by the parties e.g. the maintenance of any boundary structures, such as walls or fences, and anything that needs to be erected to divide the properties any shared access road. If a right of way is to be granted to the buyer, you will most likely want them to contribute towards the maintenance of any access road that is going to be used for this purpose.

Restrictions

You may wish to impose certain restrictions on the land that is being sold off because, for example, you don’t want a factory to be built right next to your business due to the unwelcome noise, fumes etc. It is important that such restrictions are set out in the legal transfer and registered against the buyer’s title at the Land Registry so that they are binding on future owners of the land being sold.

Existing Mortgage

If the property is mortgaged, you would not be able to sell the land without first obtaining your bank’s consent. Whether consent is granted will depend on the value of the property remaining after the proposed sale. To establish this, the bank may require a professional valuation to make sure there is still sufficient equity remaining in the property after the proposed sale.

For further advice on sales of part of commercial property please do contact Pam Virdee on 0121 312 5174 or pvirdee@thursfields.co.uk