Paul Skelton joined Birketts in April 2023.
Paul has more than 24 years’ experience of dealing with property, specialising in development site acquisitions and social housing for the last 18 years.
His main areas of work currently involve development site acquisitions for housing providers and he has particular expertise in acting for registered social housing providers and affordable housing related matters. He has worked on several high value and high profile matters with schemes involving acquisitions and sales of 100+ units for national housebuilders.
Paul has wide range of experience in dealing with development agreements, development leases, section 106 planning agreements and stock transfers.
Paul also has a niche area of expertise in setting up custom-build / self-build sites.
Paul is based at our Sevenoaks office.
Recent work highlights
Acquisition
Purchase of 130 residential units in Kent for affordable housing on a turnkey basis from a developer which included a mix of shared ownership and rented accommodation. The transaction was for high value and of strategic importance to our client and the local authority to secure homes and unlock further development.There were technical construction, ground and title issues to resolve. The transaction included sub-sale elements and funder step-in arrangements.
Disposal
Sale of Private Rented Sale Units to a PRS provider out of a larger site in being developed by our client where the freehold of the land is retained and our client builds out and develops in phases through a series of building leases. There were complex overarching contractual and title arrangements between the landowner and the client which led to tri-partite negotiations around granting easements and step-in rights to enable the PRS provider to buy on a golden brick basis. There were also complicated estate management issues that needed to be resolved including the disposal of units build over the entrances to communal parking areas.
Custom-build
Advising a developer on strategy for setting up a site for custom build residential. Included drawing together specialist tax and planning advice from colleagues and preparing stand form sale contract and transfers containing specialist provisions to cater for custom building and rights to buy back in the event the developer needed to step into a failing plot construction.
Experience & education
2023 Partner, Birketts LLP
2012 – 2016 Partner, Sharratts
2004 – 2008 Partner, Devonshires
1998 Qualified as a Solicitor
1998 DAC Beachcroft
1996 LPC, College of Law
1995 CPE, College of Law
1994 BA (Hons) English, University of Southampton
