Sarah Gaines, Partner and Head of Commercial Property

Profile:

Sarah is a Partner and head of our Commercial Property team.

She has more than 20 years’ experience advising clients from a range of sectors and joined Brachers in 1999.

Sarah is ranked in the Chambers UK 2022 legal directory for Real Estate in the South of England. She is also named as a ‘Leading Individual’ in the Legal 500 2022 directory.

She is part of the Maidstone Economic Business Partnership, and the board of Kent County Agricultural Society.

Sarah specialises in:
- Acquisition and disposal of freehold and leasehold commercial properties
- Conditional contracts
- Overage/clawback arrangements
- Promotion/option agreements
- Easements
- Royalty-linked rental arrangements
- Public sector and charities work
- Agricultural tenancies
Sarah is known for her practical approach. She builds strong, long-lasting relationships with clients, many of whom she has worked with for more than 15 years.

She also places great value on working as a team with other professionals to ensure clients have a strong, cross-disciplinary, professional team to provide a comprehensive strategy for completion of transactions.

Sarah is based at our Maidstone office.
Practice and Sector Focus:
Qualifications and Memberships:
Recent Cases:
- Advising Sevenoaks Suns Basketball Limited, the leading ladies basketball club in the country, on structuring a commercial property development on land owned by Swanley Borough Council. The deal will enable the club to build a bespoke sports facility to provide grassroots coaching and host national and international matches.
- Negotiating a replacement option agreement for a multi-million-pound sale of agricultural land to a developer. The new agreement must accommodate the changed planning requirements in the local area that demand significant infrastructure works by third parties.
- Acting in the sale of two adjoining parcels of land for residential development, where our client is a joint owner in one part of the site with her estranged half-sisters.
Awards:
- She provides outstanding advice on property matters.
  
  Client quote
- Responded to matters promptly and thoroughly.
  
  The Legal 500
- Sarah and her team were very professional, patient and dedicated. Sarah was helpful with explaining things we didn’t understand.
  
  Client quote
- The team take the time to get to know the business.
  
  Client quote