PRS: The Lawyers Get Serious

SLC Solicitors

, specialists in Ground Rent, Service Charge and AST arrears, have appointed PRS consultants Paul Belson (ex PRS Government Taskforce) and Richard Berridge (PRS expert and strategist) . The firm, headed up by Neil Shearing, operates nationally and has developed a dedicated ‘first of its kind’ PRS team which has been advising institutions on their downstream business for the past two years.   Jo Green, Head of Business Development for SLC said: ‘With all the talk about a £50 billion institutional investment in PRS, little has be made of keeping that investment sound with downstream savvy systems and it’s just not been fashionable to discuss debt provision’.   Belson and Berridge have been advising SLC on the PRS for some time and they have developed an institutional specific recovery model, which has been live for the past year as PRS businesses discover debt management has to form part of their business strategies.   SLC were surprised at the take up: ‘We’ve been overwhelmed with the response’ says Jo Green. ‘It has enabled SLC to engage at investor and fund manager level and we have partnered with some of the strongest emerging management platforms to create a comprehensive solution. Not only have we been appointed as preferred arrears lawyers for some of the largest established and emerging funds in the sector, but we’re also advising nascent PRS businesses on structuring their tenancy agreements and their systems to keep debt issues at a minimum’   With all the hype surrounding Build to Rent and the PRS the focus has been on investment, location, and the various management USP’s designed to draw in the customer. SLC say they’re using their experience dealing with freehold blocks and managing agents to reduce debt risk in the PRS.     The Urban Land institute, who recently published their ‘Built to Rent: a Best Practice Guide’ have identified that effective debt control is a key PRS management strategy, crucial to maximising yields and minimising voids. With rents rising across the country and affordability becoming a real issue for many, perhaps it’s time the new PRS looked more closely at how to manage serious leakage in its net operating income.

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