Expertise

Tim has acted for all of the country’s largest national housebuilders, including regeneration specialists. He started out his residential development career in 1987 when he joined the housing division of Tarmac Plc as an in-house solicitor. At the time Tarmac was the largest housebuilder in the country. In addition to acting for housebuilders, a good deal of Tim's practice nowadays involves acting for three of the country’s largest residential land promoters.

Since 1987, Tim has specialised exclusively in the housebuilding sector and as a consequence has an enviable wealth of experience in dealing with all aspects of the acquisition and disposal of consented and unconsented land whether through conditional contracts, strategic options or land promotion agreements. He has also prepared consortium and partnering agreements between other builders, Registered Providers and local authorities.

Having been an in-house solicitor for many years, and acting exclusively in the sector ever since, Tim has an understanding of its commercial imperatives, drivers and language and is able to apply his legal advice in a very practical and commercial manner.

How do you help clients?

With over 30 years of experience in buying residential development sites, I can tell clients what will hinder development and sales and what won't and can always give them a solution to any title or other difficulty found during the due diligence exercise. 

I advise clients of the most effective way to structure complex transactions and by doing this when heads of terms are being agreed, I can enable a swifter acquisition. I can then, when necessary, free draft contracts and clauses without a precedent to work from.

I always look at ways of making a pre-agreed deal even more beneficial to my clients.

Experience

  1. Acting for leading Modular Housebuilder, Ilke Homes Ltd in its acquisition of a 43 acre, 622 home development adjoining Boots Nottingham Headquarters, described as probably the most important strategically significant residential land deal in a generation for Nottingham.
  2. Acting for Keepmoat Homes Limited on the acquisition of a development site in Telford which was the first site in the entire country to be acquired by a builder through the Government’s Public Land Initiative and ‘Build Now Pay Later’ scheme.
  3. Acting for Lovell Partnerships on the acquisition of the first PLI site to be sold in London by the Greater London Authority.
  4. Acting for Barratt Homes in the purchase of a major £75m enabling development site from an internationally known English-based business which is of regional economic significance.