EQA Avocats’ real estate law department has three main areas of practice: assistance with real estate transactions, commercial leases, and structuring of individuals’ real estate asset portfolios.
Our real estate transactions team of our firm assists industrial groups and French and foreign investment funds in the acquisition and alienation of real estate assets, and in particular complex assets such as buildings on slabs, whether they are divided into co-ownership shares (tantième) or by volume. The firm is particularly experienced in transaction involving real estate assets used jointly by several owners, such as pedestrian malls, shared company cafeterias and car parks, whether they are owned jointly or by an urban land association (“Association Foncière Urbaine Libre – AFUL“).
The team is also on hand to offer assistance to clients buying property off-plan. In these cases, our role focuses primarily on negotiating the terms of the initial reservation contract and the VEFA contract (deed of sale for future completion) and dealing with delays, and latent construction and other defects.
Whatever the scope of these interventions, our attorneys work closely with the notaries involved in the case and the other departments of the firm, in particular the banking and finance law, tax and litigation departments.
We also assist owners of premises of all types – offices, warehouses and industrial sites – in leasing them to tenants.
Our attorneys have an in-depth knowledge of the implications of carrying out works in rented premises, and in particular how costs should be allocated between landlords and tenants, through rent discounts granted to tenants or otherwise.
On a rarer basis, our firm is involved in setting up leases in derogation of the commercial lease regime, such as professional leases, short-term occupation agreements, leases under article L. 145-5 of the French Commercial Code and leases subject only to the provisions of the French Civil Code.
Lastly, the real estate law department works in coordination with the tax law department and the private client department to advise clients on structuring their personal real estate assets. This includes not only arrangements for financing the real estate assets but also decisions as to how they are to be held (family limited liability company – SARL de Famille – , property management company subject to income tax – Société civile immobilière translucide – or property management company subject to corporate profits tax – Société civile immobilière à l’impôt sur les sociétés) and how they are to be operated (civil rental, professional and non-professional furnished rental, etc.).
