Biography
Sophia is a Trainee Legal Executive in the Social Housing Team within Real Estate department.
Sophia deals with all aspects of non-contentious commercial and residential real estate transactions. Sophia earned her Master's in Law from Swansea University in 2011 and is currently pursuing her CILEx qualifications. Her current endeavours are predominantly concentrated in the domains of social and affordable housing, urban regeneration, and public sector projects.
Prior to joining Ashfords, Sophia accrued over a decade of real estate experience as a fee earner at several law firms, including a Top 100 UK law firm. Notably, she is also a native Mandarin Chinese speaker, adding a valuable linguistic skill to her legal expertise.
Relevant experience
- Registered Provider: Working as part of the team on the acquisition of over 100 affordable dwellings for a major registered provider for a consideration of over £15m. Assisting on the negotiation of complex phased golden brick development agreements with a major national house builder. Conducting comprehensive due diligence exercises on multiple development sites with intricate property titles. Dealing with phased golden brick completion and post completion procedures.
- Registered Provider: Assisting the senior member of the team on a turn-key transaction involving the acquisition of 128 affordable housing units spread across 8 section 106 development sites in the Cotswolds, all from a major national house builder. Carrying out pre-contract searches, reviewing title documents and raising additional enquiries. Managing and tracking the progress on searches, replies to enquiries and draft documentations. Advising and reporting to the client regarding the due diligence exercise carried out on multiple sites.
- Registered Provider: dealing with multiple small-scale acquisitions of affordable housing units across various sites, overseeing the entire process from inception to completion. Negotiating contractual documentation, dealing with phased completion, reporting and advising the clients accordingly. Advising the clients on sites within the designated protected areas (DPA) and the associated restrictions related to staircasing of shared ownership units, providing guidance on the procedures to obtain a waiver from Homes England.
- Local Authority: Working as part of the team on a complex acquisition involving 79 modular affordable homes through a golden brick development agreement. Carrying out phased golden brick completion and post completion procedures. Advising the client on matters concerning estate road construction and adoption under and defects procedures following practical completion in accordance with the terms outlined in the development agreement.
