On 20 February 2018, VEGAS LEX held a conference dedicated
to legal aspects of lease relations, certain tax matters, disputes under lease
agreements and analysis of the commercial and office property markets.

On 20 February 2018, the VEGAS LEX law firm held a
conference on the topic of "Lease relations: termination of agreement
vs change of its terms and conditions"
for representatives of leading Russian
and international companies.

Igor Chumachenko, Partner, Head of Real Estate, Land & Construction
practice of VEGAS LEX, opened the event and outlined the main trends and
problems of the commercial and office property rental market.

Elena Shevchuk and Natalia Abroskina, the
experts from GVA Sawyer, presented the market analysis including the current
indices of the retail and office property market, and demonstrated advantages
and risks of a lessee and of a lessor related to alteration and termination of lease
agreements based on certain case studies.

Igor Chumachenko, in his turn, spoke about the key aspects to be focused on when drawing
up and concluding a lease agreement. The speaker also dwelt upon a general property market situation related to termination and alteration of lease agreements , and highlighted the grounds for
termination/alteration of a lease agreement, the matters of commencement of, and
procedures for, alteration/termination of the agreement. Besides, he spoke of
matters that should be focused on above all when agreeing upon, concluding and
altering a lease agreement, mentioned trends in statutory regulation and
judicial practice concerning lease relations, new rules of registration of
lease agreements and the most commonly used means of securing obligations under
a lease agreement. The speaker paid special attention to such concept as "permanent
improvements", specifically, to the agreement between the parties on making
improvements and to compensation of the value of inseparable improvements. He
also addressed issues of changing provisions(conditions) for rent payment and
proposed a number of recommendations for mitigation of risks.

Yuriy Ivanov, VEGAS LEX Manager of
Tax practice projects, addressed certain tax issues under lease agreements. In
particular, he spoke of( or talked about) dispute settlement practice by
issuing and handing over invoices, and of relevant risks mitigation practice, providing
examples of mitigating civil law risks arisen from ambiguity of some provisions
of tax legislation. Yuriy further highlighted the latest approaches of the Russian
Ministry of Finance and supervisory agencies to accrual of depreciation and
recognition of certain expenses related to lease, construction and repairs.

***

For more detailed
information on VEGAS LEX’s activity in Real Estate, Land and Construction,
please click here
.

For information on VEGAS LEX’s
services in tax law, please click here.

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