At the start of the year I was contacted by a solicitor, asking to provide a landlord client with assistance on a telecoms mast lease renewal. With only three weeks before the transaction was due to complete, it left little time to advise the client and finalise the renewal.
Terms had largely been agreed by the time I became involved, with the client’s solicitor having undertaken negotiations with the tenant’s agent, and the lease was close to completing. There was still a question mark over the appropriate rent amount to be agreed, hence me being contacted. However, once I was instructed and had reviewed the terms agreed up to that point, it was evident that the client would miss out on some future opportunities and benefits if the lease concluded in line with the present agreement. A tight timeframe had to be met in order for the client to receive an incentivised lump-sum payment from the operator.
To ensure the set timeframe was met, I had to prioritise the instruction. I was conscious that negotiations had been underway for a number of months already, with the present agreement having been reached on amicable terms. Whilst I was conscious not to scupper the agreement made so far, it was vital to ensure the client had all relevant information regarding their rights and limitations under the Telecoms Code, even if this led to certain terms being renegotiated or introduced at a very late stage in the process. I worked closely with both the client, their solicitor and the tenant’s agent to reach agreement on both the rent amount as well as a number of new terms to be incorporated within the new lease.
Terms were finalised in time for the client to receive the discretionary payment. Alongside the initially agreed terms I was able to secure a restriction on times that the Operator could carry out works to their installation, provisions for future compensation claims and the right for the client to terminate the agreement during the course of the lease Term.
Whilst the aims of my instruction were achieved in a very short space of time, it is important that clients know to seek and obtain advice from a specialist surveyor as soon as they are contacted by an operator’s agent. Ideally, this should be in advance of a telecoms solicitor becoming instructed, enabling negotiations to be carried out and terms agreed prior to legal involvement. This will ultimately save landlords in both time and cost.
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