Ongoing portfolio service

Someone whose job it is to watch the obligations

After the first audit, you can retain us to carry the planning-obligation and infrastructure monitoring across the portfolio. Fixed monthly fee, scoped to portfolio size — separate from any recovery.

Free initial portfolio audit Fee taken from the recovery, not your budget A trading style of Abbelys Solicitors

Why it exists

A snapshot is not a system

A one-off audit is a snapshot. Obligations keep maturing: spend periods expire, defects periods end, variations change what is owed, bonds become releasable. Each of those is a date, and each date passes whether or not anyone is watching it.

What’s included

The audit finds what’s there. Monitoring stops it building up again.

Most developers have the information — spread across project teams, external advisers, archived files and a different authority for every scheme. What they don’t have is a single register and someone responsible for it. The retainer is that function, priced as a fixed monthly fee rather than by the hour, so using it doesn’t feel like a decision every time.

01

Live portfolio register

Central oversight of developments, agreements, payments, bonds, deadlines and current status.

02

Section 106 monitoring

Tracking contractual milestones, repayment dates, variations and potential recovery events.

03

CIL oversight

Monitoring notices, calculations, indexation, reliefs, commencement requirements and procedural risk.

04

Highway agreement tracking

Oversight of bonds, certification, adoption, defects periods and release milestones.

05

Regular portfolio reviews

Prioritised reporting on actions, upcoming deadlines and matters requiring escalation.

06

Annual recovery review

A structured re-review of the portfolio to identify new or matured recovery opportunities.

Recovery stays separate. If the retainer surfaces a claim, the success fee applies only if that claim succeeds.

How it’s priced

Fixed monthly, scoped to the portfolio

The fee is agreed up front against the number of live and historic schemes, the authorities involved and the depth of reporting you want. It doesn’t move with activity, so a busy month costs the same as a quiet one.

  • Scoped from the portfolio, not from an hourly estimate
  • Reviewed annually rather than renegotiated site by site
  • No charge for the initial audit that precedes it
  • Cancellable on notice set out in the engagement terms

FAQs

Common questions

Do we have to take the retainer to use the audit?

No. The free audit and any resulting recovery work stand entirely on their own. The retainer is for developers who would rather have the monitoring handled continuously than revisit it site by site.

What does the reporting actually look like?

A maintained register of the portfolio with status against each obligation, plus prioritised reporting on what needs action, what is coming up, and what should be escalated. Format and frequency are agreed at the outset to fit how your team already works.

Who does this replace internally?

Usually nobody — that’s rather the point. This work tends to sit in the gaps between land, technical, commercial and legal rather than belonging to any one of them.

Can we start with a single region or business unit?

Yes. Scoping it to one region or one entity first is a common way in, and the fee is set accordingly.

Also worth reviewing

Other recovery areas

Section 106 recovery

Repayment rights, unspent and misapplied contributions

Read more →

CIL review and recovery

Calculation, indexation, relief, exemption and surcharges

Read more →

Highway agreements & bonds

S38 and S278 works, certification, adoption, bond release

Read more →

Get started

Scope a monitoring retainer

Every retainer starts with the free portfolio audit, so we are pricing against what is actually there rather than an estimate.

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Abbelys Solicitors
Suite 208, 82 King Street
Manchester, M2 4WQ

We use these details only to respond to your enquiry. Sending this form does not create a solicitor–client relationship — that begins once terms are agreed in writing.

DEVELOPERRECOVERY

Specialist recovery and monitoring of planning obligations for property developers across England and Wales.