Free advice from a QC concludes this tale of a well-known property figure who attempted to short-change a seller by leaning on a rival bidder to withdraw his higher offer. Let’s call the baddie Buyer A. Let’s call the leant-upon bidder Buyer B. Let’s call the vendor’s agent the Naughty Agent for disclosing Buyer B’s bid to Buyer A. Here is how it goes…
Buyer A calls Buyer B: “This is a very small industry, you know. I’m sure we can help you out on another deal. Can you withdraw your offer? It’s far too high.” After some sparring, Buyer B refuses to treat with Buyer A, and goes and buys the property. But what if he had given way to these half-threats and entreaties?
I put this scenario to a leading barrister this week. The QC steepled his fingers, and said, first of the Naughty Agent: “It’s a breach of fiduciary duty to their client, bordering on the criminal.” Of Buyers A & B: “It would be a conspiracy by unlawful means to cause the vendor loss if buyers collude.”
Let us pray that few buyers or agents regard this sort of behaviour as normal. Or that any sellers find out this sort of thing goes on.
Efficiency for sale
The number of major planning applications in London rose by 32% to 1,021 in the year to March 2014, according to planners at GL Hearn. In Kensington & Chelsea the numbers doubled.
Westminster’s is calculated to be the most efficient planning service, helped no doubt by funding from members of the Westminster Property Association. At last week’s lunch at the Grosvenor, WPA chairman Dan van Gelder of Exemplar noted that 15 planners were being supported by payments that ensure applications are dealt with on time – in other words, paying for what should be done in the normal course of events but for government savaging council budgets.
But surely government has eased the pain with the introduction in 2012 of the National Planning Policy Framework. “[This makes] planning much simpler and more accessible,” said former planning minister Greg Clark, at the time, “reducing over 1,000 of often impenetrable jargon to around 50 pages of clearly written guidance.” Fine.
But simpler has not meant faster. “The NPPF has made no improvements in the speed or volume of applications,” says Shaun Andrews of GL Hearn. “The fact is that the long wait times persist. We should be sceptical of any ‘silver bullet’ to deliver the changes required.” In other words, learn to live, if not love, the way things are.
Care homes for the uncaring
There was always something unsustainable about the way financiers exploited the care home sector in the noughties. Freighting companies with debt. Splitting the operating arm from property assets. Saddling the operators with long leases and upward-only rent reviews. One limping survivor is, of course, Four Seasons. This week owner Guy Hands appointed Blackstone to advise on splitting up and selling the debt-laden operator. Who better? Blackstone admitted to making $1bn (£640m) from the build up and sale of Southern Cross in the noughties.
Caveat emptor: one thing has changed in the past 10 years. Figures from the US in Atul Gawande’s splendid but scary book, Being Mortal, show more aged people are choosing to see out their days at home, tended by visiting nurses and mobile hospice services. Far better no doubt than ending their days in cash-strapped care homes run by well-meaning operators locked into barely affordable rents imposed by their financial masters.
Three cheers for a nice chap
A quick cheer for property veteran Harvey Soning, founder of commercial agent James Andrew International and giver of mugs declaring, “Dear God, just let there be one more property boom. I promise I won’t piss it all away this time.” How can such a modestly sized firm pack the ballroom at Claridge’s with 500 guests to celebrate the 40th anniversary of James Andrew? By Harvey Soning being genuinely nice, that’s how. Unlike… no, let’s not be nasty – for once.
