Specialist affordable housing solicitors

Your housing management function is often the interchange between regulatory scrutiny and tenant experience.

We work with executives and heads of service to design policies, management agreements, SLAs and processes that are fair, consistent and defensible, covering everything from tenancy management, anti-social behaviour, complaints, decants and instances of damp and mould.

Our social housing solicitors help you embed clear, secure frameworks that make as much sense on paper as they do for your teams to implement in reality.

We draft and stress-test tenancy agreements, procedures, management agreements and SLAs against current legislation and regulation, Ombudsman guidance and best practice, helping to ensure your infrastructure withstands audit, regulatory and public scrutiny.

When issues escalate, you need litigation support that understands what’s at stake legally, politically and commercially.

Our social housing lawyers handle the full range of housing disputes for landlords, including complex possession claims, injunctions, building and fire safety enforcement, tenant disputes, service charge challenges and disrepair-related litigation.

We focus on proportionate, commercially sensible outcomes that minimise disruption and protect vulnerable residents. Working closely with your in-house team, we triage risk and select the right legal route to protect your interests.

Compliance is a board-level responsibility and when it falls short of regulation, the consequences are far reaching.

Our social housing compliance solicitors help protect your grading and your reputation, not only by designing frameworks that reduce the likelihood of falling foul of the regulator, but will be right by your side if things go wrong.

Covering health and safety, property compliance (gas, electrical, water hygiene, Legionella, asbestos), fire and building safety, safeguarding and local authority enforcement, complex complaints, and emergency services investigation, we are there to help.

We have significant experience supporting providers following serious incidents – advising on immediate remedial actions, internal investigations, regulator notifications, RIDDOR reports, media handling and inquest representation. We help you anticipate regulatory concerns, avoid adverse findings and demonstrate that being a responsible, values-driven organisation forms the basis of your decision making.

Rationalising stock is a core lever for protecting viability, improving quality and focusing on communities you can serve well.

We help boards and executives plan and deliver disposals, transfers and acquisitions that align with your asset strategy, funding arrangements and social purpose. Our social housing solicitors understand how to structure transactions that are efficient, regulator-ready and sensitive to resident impact.

From due diligence and data room preparation to negotiation and completion, we manage the legal process so you can focus on strategy and stakeholder management. We work with your finance, development and housing teams to ensure that disposals and mergers support your long-term objectives, balance your risk profile, and protect your commercial and social purposes for years to come.

Development and regeneration projects don’t come without their challenges. We help you structure deals in a way that protects value, allocates risk fairly and gives you the flexibility you need in a changeable market.

With much at stake with largescale schemes, being able to demonstrate to funders, partners, the Regulator and your tenants that your growth strategy is disciplined, values-led and deliverable can make or break a schemes viability.

Our social housing lawyers advise on the full development and regeneration spectrum – affordable housing delivery, s106 requirements, joint ventures, estate regeneration, infrastructure and mixed-use schemes. We combine technical real estate expertise with decades of understanding registered providers – the risks you face, the governance you’re guided by and the need to deliver services that support your communities for the long term.

Getting planning right is as critical. Our nationally recognised planning solicitors advise housing associations and registered providers on planning strategy, s106 and affordable housing obligations, infrastructure arrangements, as well as environmental considerations – working alongside your development and construction teams from the outset to ensure consents support your growth programme and the communities you serve.

Our site set-up function works hand in hand with our social housing development team to ensure a seamless transition from scheme delivery to plot sales – preparing bespoke leases, pre-emptive site enquiries and responses designed to minimise delays and reduce the burden on your sales team. From innovative zero-bills set-ups and restricted DPA leases to multi-tenure apartment blocks, we have acted on a huge range of schemes for medium and large registered providers across the country.

Our team provides an end-to-end service, from initial engagement through to buyer registration across leasehold, freehold, land-led and mixed-tenure developments. Strong relationships with buyers’ solicitors, combined with deep sector knowledge, mean our site set-ups are clear, comprehensive and built to drive momentum for RPs. We also offer a client portal giving your team real-time visibility of transaction progress, automated reporting and on-demand data, so delays are identified early and momentum is maintained throughout your programme.

When disputes arise, having specialists who understand the social housing sector – and the commercial, regulatory and reputational pressures registered providers face – makes a significant difference.

Our property and construction litigation team is widely recognised for its expertise in social housing disputes, covering the full spectrum of property litigation including asset management disputes, landlord and tenant claims, development disputes, boundary issues, rights of way, enforcement of covenants and the Electronic Communications Code. We work closely with our development team to provide practical, commercial solutions to title and development issues – from unlocking stalled schemes to resolving multi-million-pound overage disputes and terminating electronic code agreements to facilitate major regeneration programmes.

On the construction side, we advise on delay, financial claims, defects, contractor insolvency and termination of live projects – including coordinating expert input, evidential analysis, detailed letters of claim, adjudications, without prejudice meetings and mediation.

Property is often central to funding and capital asset strategies. Being always ready can help you move quickly when opportunities arise.  Our team advises on charging and property security, helping providers create, review and manage security pools for private placements, bond issues and bank facilities.   

We prepare and negotiate security documents, manage due diligence and collate charging packs so assets are “funding-ready” when opportunities arise. We carry out pre-charging health checks to identify title, use, or valuation issues that could derail a transaction, ensuring your property charging strategy supports your wider commercial plan.