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What is Commercial Property Law?

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If you see yourself having a career in law, once you graduate and pass all the relevant examinations and are ready to take your first steps on the legal ladder, you may find yourself looking to specialise in a particular field.

There are many areas of law you can potentially move into. One of the most in-demand aspects of the law is property law, in particular, commercial property law. This is because people are always buying and investing in land or property. A property solicitor is always required when someone is looking to buy, lease, sell, or develop a property or piece of land.

Personal Property 

As obvious as it might seem, a property is defined as something that is owned by a person or entity, i.e. a business or organisation. Obviously, a ‘thing’ can be a myriad of different objects. Everything from a packet of crisps to the largest building in the world can be deemed to be someone’s property. For the sake of this, we are only looking at the law in relation to ‘real’ property as opposed to ‘personal’ property. Real property is defined as any interest in land, real estate, growing plants, or the improvements on them. Personal property is defined as pretty much everything else.

As wide-ranging as this field has become in the modern world, it all can be traced back to when the Law of Property Act 1925 was legislated in the UK. This legislation was intended to modernise how ‘real’ property was transferred, and limited to either freehold or leasehold, by deed. Also in that year, the Land Registration Act became law. Together these pieces of legislation set out to create a system that, to some extent, still exists today. In fact, the latter was still part of our laws until it was superseded by a modernised version in 2002.

Interested In The Legal Field?

We have now established what property law is. If it still looks like a legal field you may be interested in pursuing there is another choice for you to make. Do you choose to go into residential or commercial property law? Residential property refers to buildings that are used for private living quarters, whilst commercial property, sometimes known as income or investment property, are those used for business. There are examples of course where a building can be both, care homes for example. This is usually determined by the number of residential ‘units’ a building has, often determined for tax or other financial requirements.

Varied Topics 

Now you’ve decided to become a commercial property law solicitor, what kind of work will you be doing? Well, as we said at the beginning, it’s a varied and thriving field of law. Because commercial property covers such a wide range of topics, the work can be incredibly dynamic.

If you consider what could be classed as a commercial property you will begin to understand how busy you’ll be. Think about all the retail parks, shopping centres, pubs, restaurants, garages, warehouses, farmland, and offices there are, all will need a solicitor at some point.

It’s not just the buildings themselves, but any rent or lease issues that may arise will require your input. Commercial buildings, just like residential ones, are bought and sold and often on a much more expensive scale. When it comes to the leisure sector, you also have to deal with licenses and renewals.

Always Changing

Commercial property law is an area that is always going to impact all of our lives. Regardless of which side of the legal fence you are on, you may well need a commercial property solicitor to help, although we, of course, hope it’s for a positive experience, rather than not.