Experience in conveyancing with housing authorities and associations is important within your legal team. The day you buy your chosen development site is the day you need to start preparing to sell the development. High levels of due diligence are of paramount importance to ensure the smooth running of the rest of your development project. Once your purchase of the site has been complete any issues that remain can be very costly. Pre-purchase legal due diligence will protect you from these types of issues.
Your legal team are your best form of protection from the beginning to the end of the project. Boundary disputes and neighbour complaints over noise and privacy are commonplace during construction developments. Legal issues can arise at any stage of a development and it is important that you are prepared for them as the later they arise, the costlier they will inevitably become as project delays can be extremely costly. Early preparation for the completion of contracts and the handover of ownership will ensure that this stage of the process is as efficient as possible which will ensure you receive your payment swiftly.
Regardless of the procurement, method all social housing association will require collateral warranties and insurances for all participants in the development team. Collateral warranties are legal documents which ties the consultants and their professional indemnity insurance into the project for a number of years after project completion. The number of years varies between 6-12 years depending on the project and the chosen delivery method of the project. The level of indemnity insurance required by each design team member will depend on the overall project value. They will also require employers and public liability insurance for the period of the collateral warranty. The wording of the collateral warranty documents can be very onerous to the consultants and this often results in difficulties for the developer in getting the consultancy team to sign the collateral warranty upon the completion of the development. It is vitally important that each member of your chosen consultancy team confirm in writing their agreement to sign the collateral warranty prior to being appointed. They must also agree to maintaining the appropriate level of insurance indemnities for the warranty period. Members of the consultancy team must also agree to record each financial transaction associated with the project. This entails providing their financial records for inspection in the event of any fraud, corruption, collusion, financial terrorism or money laundering is adjudged to have occurred over the course of the project life cycle. Prior to appointing any consultancy team member, it is vitally important to ensure they are willing to maintain the appropriate insurance level and sign the collateral warranty. Failure to do so will result in costly delays and potential legal issues.
