Our client entered into a Private Finance Initiative to fund the development of a new health centre in Northern England. The area to be developed was a piece of unused land surrounded by private dwellings and commercial property.

Solicitors acting for our client identified a potential problem resulting from the Common Land Act 2006 which came into force on 6th April 2007. The passing of the Act can now make the attempted development of unused land in any rural or urban situation much more problematic.

Land that has been leftover from previous developments, or just unused and not earmarked for a specific purpose, can be registered as common land if it has been employed for recreational purposes by the community over the years and unopposed by the owners.

The issue was further complicated in that the development had been rolled with two other developments into one financial package. Consequently, if the development did not take place, the unravelling of the financial package would have entailed costs to allow the other two developments to continue unhindered.

We successfully negotiated the insurance on the client’s behalf to cover the potential loss of the asset value, in the event of the site being designated as Common Land within the allowed time frame (which is two years from the date of notice of development). Cover was also negotiated for the construction costs, which may already have been incurred if the development had commenced by the time the land was designated as Common Land, as well as any additional refinancing costs.

An existing client contacted us to place immediate cover on a public house with a thatched roof. We contacted the Insurer of their current property portfolio at short notice and agreed that they could hold cover overnight.

The following day the Insurers reviewed the position and advised that due to underwriting criteria at head office they would be unable to provide cover going forward. However, we were able to identify and obtain specific additional underwriting information, which enabled us to successfully negotiate full cover subject to £5,000 excess and a satisfactory survey. This was a great result for our client, as we were able to protect their property without having to rely on the limited specialist market for thatched properties which would have imposed a larger excess and quite possibly a restriction in the perils insured.

Our client owned a building situated within an Enterprise Zone (EZ) and was concerned that should the building suffer damage, they could incur liability to tax due to receipt of claims payments. We therefore approached insurers to provide insurance cover in respect of this potential loss as per the example below

Where the EZ status has expired the Trusts are liable to lose 100% of the capital allowance and to be taxed on the clawback. For example in Property 1 below, the clawback in a total loss could be up to £1,500,000.

	Current Sum Insured	Capital Allowance on Purchase	EZ Status Expired?	EZA Sum Insured
Property 1	£2,000,000	£1,500,000	Yes	£1,500,000
Property 2	£10,000,000	£15,000,000	No	£5,000,000

We were able to quickly arrange the appropriate cover and protect our client’s balance sheet.

From a client servicing perspective, we offered a large Property Owner client substantial assistance in their internal accounting. This particular organisation not only had over a hundred companies within its Group, including joint venture companies, but also had different accounting areas dealing with payments and collections.

Due to the flexibility of our in-house Asset system we were able to not only split the various parties being invoiced (direct or through managing agents) but also to classify which accounts areas dealt with the payments. This has meant that we have been able to email electronic statements direct to the respective accounts divisions to assist their reconciliations.

The assistance we provide to our clients does not always involve us arranging insurance policies. Sometimes we are able to give them the comfort they require without incurring any premium costs. As an example, we were approached by one of our large fund management clients to look at providing insurance cover in respect of Capital Allowance. The fund had WDA (Written Down Allowance) and IBA (Industrial Building Allowance) on one of their properties. The property was sold with the fund retaining a superior interest in the building allowing them to continue claiming the above allowances for the remainder of the 25 year period. Our client was concerned that they may not be able to continue to claim the allowances if the building were destroyed and not rebuilt by the new owners.

We reviewed the situation and, after our investigations, we were able to confirm to them that they would still be able to claim the allowances if the building was destroyed and that they would not need to purchase insurance cover.