News

Devonshires are delighted to have completed the Clarion merger.

As of 1st December 2016, the Immigration Act 2014 will be amended by Sections 39 to 41 of the Immigration Act 2016. The provisions apply to private sector landlords and to social landlords.

We are delighted to announce that Devonshires will be expanding into the North following the hire of Chris Drabble, Legal Director at Addleshaw Goddard, who will head a new Leeds office opening in February 2017.

Devonshires recently acted for A2Dominion Housing Group Limited in establishing its £1bn Euro Medium Term Note programme and subsequent issue of a £250m 3.50% unsecured sterling bond due 2028.

On the 9 November 2016 the Supreme Court announced its judgment to the bedroom tax challenges made against the government.

The new Construction and Engineering Protocol will come into effect on 9 November 2016 following a joint collaboration between TecBar and TecSA with the assistance of Mr Justice Coulson. The focus of the changes seems to be to reduce pre-action costs and speed up the pre-action procedure.

Since 2006, contracting authorities have been able to use the competitive dialogue (CD) procedure to procure contracts that cannot be awarded without prior dialogue with bidders due to the complex nature of the contract.

From low level noise through to full blown party houses, Airbnb and subletting is creating a broad range of issues for registered providers (RPs). That was the message that came through loud and clear at a recent event we held to discuss the impact of the room-letting website on the social housing sector.

On the 1 November 2016 the Court of Appeal considered the case of Holley v Hillingdon LBC. Mr Holley continued to occupy a property owned by the local authority following the death of the tenant, his grandfather, who had previously succeeded to the tenancy.

Devonshires acted for Merlin on a race discrimination claim issued in the Bristol Employment Tribunal by an ex-employee. The Judge dismissed all allegations of discrimination and made a finding of fact that the Claimant had lied whilst giving evidence. Devonshires made an application for costs based on the ex-employees unreasonable conduct and he was ordered to pay £17,204.16.

We acted for L&Q in the acquisition of 29 Affordable Housing Units from Countryside Zest (Beaulieu Park) LLP on the Neighbourhood Centre and Zone B of the Beaulieu Park development in Chelmsford, Essex.

The only reported Airbnb case so far has attracted media attention and a small flurry of articles and opinion pieces.