Alison Lloyd

Consultant Solicitor

Commercial & Residential Property

About Alison

Alison qualified as a solicitor in 2001 and specialised in property from the start. Known among her loyal clients for always being available for a chat at a time to suit them, Alison feels privileged to work with people in some of the most important transactions of their lives, and wants them to know she will have their back from start to finish.

Alison works with private individuals, families and business owners, whilst working hard to provide clear, timely advice in plain English, and to persuade even the most difficult transactions to go through with as little angst to her clients as possible. Alison believes that clients should feel fully in control, having the transaction done with them, not ‘to’ them.

When asked how she relaxes outside the office, she said: “I think it depends on your definition of relax”. Alison is a former professional violinist and is trying to find the time to pick it up again. She has a lovely young dog to train and is currently attempting to curtail his Houdini impersonations! She says, ‘How he is squeezing his 40kg frame through the cat flap is beyond me!’ Alison is also learning to swim, which she describes as not remotely relaxing.

Legal Specialisms

• Commercial Property - From a lease of a parking space or any type of commercial premises to sales and purchases of hotels, offices, warehouses, shops, pubs, blocks of flats – really anything that isn’t a home, as well as building and development sites. Alison happily acts for buyers and sellers, landlords and tenants alike. Also, bridging and peer-to-peer finance, and back-to-back transactions.

• Agriculture - Buying and selling land; refinancing farm businesses; auctions (for buyer or seller); buying, selling or splitting farms and estates which might entail dealing with Farm Business Tenancies and old Agricultural Tenancies; holiday lets; commercial leases; shooting, fishing and other rights (“profits”); cropping licences; holdover agreements; equestrian aspects; easements; covenants; unregistered land; adverse possession; lost deeds applications; private drainage and water supplies. Also, solar farms, cable easements and wayleaves. Liaising with accountants to assist with Inheritance and succession planning. Back-to-back transactions and land swaps. Overage agreements.

• Residential Property - Buying and selling houses and flats; freehold and leasehold; remortgages; bridging for self-builders; auctions (for buyer or seller); shared ownership including staircasing; equity release. Listed buildings and Conservation Areas; private drainage and water supplies.

• Transfer of a Going Concern - Buying or selling a business with a property.

Legal Expertise in Practice

• Commercial Property - Alison has dealt with so many different types of property over the last 25 years. Assisting with bridging or alternative finance is very satisfying because it can be make or break for the client and speed is often crucial. A commercial purchase in the past few months has involved negotiating and drafting a new lease to rescue the situation with a sitting tenant, while, on the purchase side, investigating a complex title where an error in registration over 20 years ago means that some land is missing from the title.

• Agriculture - A recent, and particularly rewarding, transaction involved selling off various parcels of a large estate to reduce borrowing and enable the client to keep most of their family’s hard-earned property while making the finances work so that their business could continue. It included every possible area of Agricultural work, but also piecing together evidence of missing deeds and putting together the jigsaw puzzle of what we did have to get missed areas registered urgently; correcting numerous mapping errors encountered on the way; and sorting out defective occupational leases. Keeping so many plates spinning was at times exhausting and always exhilarating. Organisation and communication were key, particularly liaising with the bank to keep them calm and on-side throughout. Also interesting was an agricultural transaction involving part-inheritance, part-purchase, buying other beneficiaries out to ensure the farm business’s ongoing viability. This involved an agri lender using its own solicitors, who needed to be satisfied down to every last tiny detail. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the seller, Alison was setting up a sub-sale of part of the property in order to ease the funding situation. This required a cropping agreement and a lot of thought to go into easements for services. It also had to involve the lender, as they needed to take and then release some of their security on completion.

• Residential Property - It is a privilege to help a buyer into their first home or a family to step up the ladder. At the other end of the scale, it’s lovely to help more established homeowners to release equity so they have the pleasure of helping family out or have the cash to go and live life to the full. I cannot count the number of people I have helped to move, and they all appreciate my good, prompt communication and my love of plain English – this is most definitely a jargon-free zone!
  
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• Transfer of a Going Concern - Whether buying or selling, a transfer of a business along with a property is always interesting, and Alison says it is an honour to support people who are perhaps starting out in business, expanding an existing business, or maybe stepping back. A recent purchase of a shop involved liaising with a global brand which operates a voluntary trading model rather than as a franchise, and with the Post Office. Alison arranged the transfer of the alcohol licence and liaised with accountants on the business side, while checking and reporting to the client on the leasehold property title, and dealing with the solicitors for the freeholder and the management company of the premises.

Related Services

Commercial & Residential Property >

Call Alison: 01202 156575

Call Alison: 07918 092545

Email Alison: a.lloyd@woodstocklegalservices.co.uk