Real Estate Recovery

Dedicated team with unrivalled experience



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For further advice please contact us for a consultation.

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+44 (0)3330 143 401 [email protected]

gunnercooke boasts an exceptional specialist real estate recovery team with incredible talent and unrivalled experience. From complex, high value, litigious development sites to straight forward residential properties, from one-off assets to 500+ portfolios, this team has done it all. We offer the same first-class service, the same added value, the same focused approach whoever the client and whatever the job.

Summary

Many of the processes in this area of the law are the same regardless of the type of asset involved. This makes it possible for most insolvency lawyers to do this work.  However, gunnercooke is different.

Our real estate recovery team is dedicated to this area of work and only this area of work and have been since qualification, decades ago.  This means we have seen first hand the ins and outs, the pitfalls and the nuances of this area of law.  We have seen the tactics used to attempt to frustrate the recovery processes, we have spent time in industry and we know the market and the people like the back of our hands.  We assist clients at all stages in the recovery process: from discussions with the borrowers to exiting a recovery process.  We are straight-talking, solution providing people who ensure all parties involved in a matter focus on getting the best outcome possible for our client.

The combination of our experience and the typically static nature of the law presents us with a fantastic opportunity to deliver a part-commoditised service but with the necessary expertise behind it to ensure any unusual aspects are immediately identified and responded to (usually before it impacts in any way on the recovery).

In short, we know real estate recovery. If you have not already used us, send us an instruction.  You will not regret it.

Our work in Real Estate Insolvency includes:

  • Establishing the most time and cost-efficient exit strategies
  • Adding value to assets wherever possible to maximise the achievable return
  • Dealing with borrowers who attempt to frustrate the recovery process
  • Disposing of assets in a timely manner

Notable cases

  • Acting for a bridging lender on the enforcement of secured lending of £15m+ debt with hostile borrowers, including appointment of receivers over legal charges, equitable charges and successful defence of a fiercely contested injunction.
  • Advising William Davis on an acquisition, subject to planning via options, on more than 90 acres of prime residential land at sites in prime East Midlands locations comprising Matlock Derbyshire, Barrowby Grantham, and Wellingborough Northamptonshire.
  • Acting on the promotion and option agreement in respect of over 130 acres of land adjacent to the A5 in the East Midlands which, subject to planning, is proposed to be developed by Wilson Bowden to comprise in excess of 1.5 m sq feet of warehouse, distribution and manufacturing space.
  • The multiple receivership appointments which arose from the administration and liquidation of TIUTA plc.
  • International recovery from lending in the UK.
  • Private equity house large volume debt book recovery.
  • Advised the holder of secured notes in Radio Physics Solutions Limited in relation to a super-senior facility and enforcement — a high-tech venture into which £several-millions had been invested.
  • Advised a class of investors of Lendy Limited (in Administration), a failed peer-to-peer lender in relation to difficult issues concerning the potential consequences of its contractual framework with debts exceeding £100m.
  • Assisted the underlying client related to achieving its £5m investment objectives — following allegations of asset-stripping, a director of Iconic Plc resigned, and the client (a creditor for over £2m) agreed, subject to shareholder approval, to inject additional working capital.
  • Advised the administrators of a property developer, Blackmore Bond PLC, with £45m debt owed to several thousand retail investors.
  • Advised the administrators of this peer-to-peer (crowd-funding) loan platform, with 164 loans outstanding with an aggregate value of £45m to recover.
  • Acted on the pre-pack acquisition of the business and assets of SeeWoo Foods (Glasgow) Limited, a cash and carry store which had been demerged several years ago with debt circa £3m, involving some complexities around brand and other intellectual property rights.
  • Advised the joint liquidators, Paul Zalkin and Simon Campbell of Quantuma LLP, of Cuckooz Limited (in liquidation) — an upmarket Airbnb business based in London.
  • Acted in a £15m+ matter involving a cross-border commercial fraud claim arising out of fraudulent misapplication of money invested into the off-plan redevelopment of the vacant Grosvenor Hotel in Bristol into 140+ units of student accommodation.
  • Acted for the borrower and leading the restructuring of £40m facilities involving a hospital and care home group with 250 employees.

Who have our Partners worked with?

  • Institutional high street lenders
  • Private equity houses
  • Building societies
  • Private companies
  • Private individuals
  • Fixed charge receivers
  • Insolvency practitioners

Quotes from clients

Harriet is a breath of fresh air in the world of real estate recovery. She is superbly focussed on her clients’ needs and provides practical and commercial advice. The combination of her technical ability and her zeal for the work she does make her a real asset to have on any job.

Key Contacts

Kelly Kirby

Partner

Property & Agricultural Litigation

Shereen Lloyd

Partner

Commercial Real Estate

Rich Roberts

Partner

Commercial Real Estate

Claire Saffer

Legal Counsel

Planning - Real Estate

Molly Siggs

Senior Associate

Commercial Property

Harriet Swainson

Partner

Real Estate Insolvency

News and Insights from our Partners


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