• 125 year lease for a new medical centre development (£2 million)

    Acting for a practice in taking a 125 year underlease (for approximately £2 million) of premises in the course of development.

    The work was complicated by the fact that the practice was run from portacabins with a strict time limit to vacate; the developers’ desire to build out the surgery in time with its own programme for completion of the surrounding flats; uncertainties around NHS England funding; and the requirements of the lending bank. This resulted in complex negotiations and a full suite of documents comprising of a development agreement, a fit-out agreement and the grant of an underlease for 125 years, together with a set of collateral warranties.

    Negotiating a 20 year lease (£2.5 million) for a new development

    Acting for a leading local practice in taking up a long lease of extensively refurbished premises.

    We advised the practice on the terms of their vacation of their old premises and acted on the new transaction. This involved negotiating a development agreement with a third party developer, procuring collateral warranties for the benefit of the practice and negotiating a 20 year underlease from the developer. The value of the transaction is approximately £2.5 million. The new building opened in April 2014 and now operates from state of the art premises.

    LIFT Scheme (£13 million)

    Advising a group of 13 separate practices in taking up new premises under a GP local improvement finance trust (LIFT) scheme.

    The work was complex and carried out under considerable time pressure from the NHS Trust as it had forward funded a development to a value of £13million, without securing tenants. The advice encompassed advising GPs in relation to taking up underleases (known as LIFT sub-lease plus agreements). These were complex sub-leases and required us to explain the inter-relationship between the sub-leases and the LIFT leases (known as LIFT plus agreements), ensuring that relevant licences to underlet were obtained from the appropriate LIFT company, negotiating break clauses for the benefit of the GPs and ensuring all of these were in line with superior LIFT documentation.

    We negotiated solutions in relation to key issues such as flexibility of GP occupation of premises, car parking rights and alterations to GP premises within the framework of the existing lease plus agreements, and negotiated alternative solutions where these problems could not be addressed within the existing framework. We were successful in incorporating Armageddon and other break clauses for the benefit of the GPs.

    Funding a new GP Surgery/Pharmacy Complex

    Client: HSBC Bank plc

    Value: £1.4 million.

    We advised a bank in secured lending to support the purchase by a leading GP Practice of a long leasehold interest in newly built premises. We safeguarded the bank’s interest throughout the development process, and also on the grant of a long lease from the developer to the Practice’s limited company, and the grant of an underlease to the Practice itself.

    The transaction involved a developer building out a health centre and granting a long lease to an LLP, and a further long lease of part of the premises to a pharmacy. The LLP will sell its interest to the Practice’s limited company by an LLP transfer agreement involving the resignation of the initial members of the LLP and the subsequent liquidation of the LLP leaving the Practice Company the sole member of the LLP and the inheritor of the lease.

    This content is correct at time of publication

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