The Arena
In property and development matters, one may face the pressures of meeting strict budgets and time frames, as well as demands from environmental authorities and the community. Such projects can have a great physical impact on a lifestyle, a neighbourhood or a district.
Why Civic Legal?
We know that property and development transactions need lawyers who are not only exacting in their approach to the law, but also have a broader commercial understanding of the project.
The Civic Legal team understands these dynamics, so we strive to provide timely, cost-effective and comprehensive support to our clients.
Property Law for Corporate and Commercial Clients
The work that our team manages ranges from routine residential property transactions to complex multi-million dollar projects. The latter often involve multi-lot strata developments in joint ventures between Australian property developers and inbound foreign investors. Such projects require Foreign Investment Review Board approval and a suite of associated documentation.
We pay attention to the overall goals of the parties and act stringently to make sure that our clients’ interests are protected to the maximum extent possible.
Property Law for Local Governments
Our deep familiarity with the needs of the local government sector enables us to not only assist in routine property conveyancing work but also with more complex work such as Commonwealth funded subdivision projects in public-private partnership arrangements.
We understand local government; we understand property law. This combination enables our team to help our clients execute their transactions smoothly. Such transactions could include sales of land pursuant to section 6.68 of the Local Government Act or and compliance with section 3.58 of the Act when disposing of land generally or entering into lease agreements.
With regard to leasing work, our team is also knowledgeable in the kind of leasing agreements that local governments often need to implement with community organisations and clubs and commercial enterprises within their districts.
Native Title
Obligations under the Native Title Act 1993 can add a layer of long-term complexity to property and development projects. The conflicting needs and demands of various interest groups and the government agencies can be sources of concern to our clients.
At Civic Legal, we identify for our clients the various factors at play and then advise them accordingly. We favour the approach of reaching agreement between all parties, and work sensitively and patiently towards a mutually acceptable solution.
Our firm appears regularly in the Native Title Tribunal and Federal Court to protect the interests of clients where native title claims affect land in which they have an interest or a potential interest.
“The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder engaged Civic Legal to undertake the sale of some two dozen properties in order to recover unpaid rates that had been outstanding for some three years or more. To my knowledge, this was the largest exercise ever undertaken by the City under section 6.64 of the Local Government Act. One of our fears was whether we would be able to recover all or most of the costs that we had incurred… however, Civic Legal soon allayed those fears by providing a smooth and reliable pathway for my team.
Civic Legal made promises to us that were kept. They promised us a timeline – and kept to it. They offered to keep us informed on a structured monthly basis and they did. They gave us an estimate of the expected legal costs of the process and stuck close to it. As a result, we knew what the status of the entire project was at any one time. Civic Legal took the burden away from the staff, through their approachable and efficient management of the process.
Further, the costs of the entire exercise, which could have been very high, turned out to be very reasonable. We know this from the fact that no negative feedback was received from any stakeholder, not even from ratepayers, whose properties had been auctioned to meet the unpaid rates and had to meet some or all of the legal costs relating to the exercise. We could not have asked for more from the Civic Legal team. I am very happy that we used the Civic Legal team and would have no hesitation in using them again.”
Director, Community Services, City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder
