Do you have the necessary skills and experience?

Yes and if we don’t we will tell you and we will not take an instruction (see the outline of our experience and our exciting case studies elsewhere in this document). The best way of finding out if we are any good is to talk to some of our clients and get their recommendation. We will always encourage you to firstly talk to our existing clients so they can tell you about their experiences with the team at John Alison Land & Research Ltd then you can make up your own mind.

What is the ‘Right Agreement’ for my situation? What is the difference between a Conditional Contract, Option, Promotion or Hybrid?

We will talk to you first and assess your personal situation and then
• we take into account all of the above
• we say it doesn’t really matter which agreement type to use because it is simplistic to choose one before the other it is more important than that, so
• we say there is no real difference, they all bind the parties to do certain things and then, once successful, there is a sale price to be achieved by agreement or by market sale. No agreement is inherently better than another and all of them are right in the right situation
• we often fit the agreement to the partner and
• we often fit the partner to the agreement
• we use our experience to get the best out of both the partner and the agreement.

A long way of saying ‘it depends’ and ‘it is different for each site and each landowner’, but that’s the point we do not have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach we tailor the answer to reflect your requirements and aspirations and we will back-up our recommendation with our reasons. The point of the exercise is to create the best value for you our client.

What is the ‘Right Partner’, Housebuilder or Promoter?

We would talk with you first and assess your personal situation and then
• we look at the site and its constraints and opportunities and size and
• we look at competing sites and
- the Local Authority its development policies and
- the current stage of the Local Plan and - the five-year land supply and
- the track record and the abilities of the partner and
- the personalities involved and
- the level of consultation or combat required and more and then
• we come up with a recommendation tailored to your situation and
• we talk it through with you so you are clear about the strategy and
• we may recommend going out to the market and get competitive bids and
• we may recommend a shortlist and every so-often we might recommend one particular partner.

How much do you charge?

We will explain and agree our charges with you at the start. In almost all circumstances we will require the chosen partner to underwrite our fees and your legal costs as well as paying a non-returnable sum to you for entering into the agreement. We also always ask the partner to make a contribution to our management and monitoring costs over the period of the agreement so that as far as possible you can remain cost neutral.