Charles is an equity partner in the Commercial Property team at Stephens Scown having joined in October 2022.

Charles has experience dealing with all types of commercial property, including offices, shops, warehouses, industrial land and leisure, as well as straying into first registration of unregistered rural property.

Charles also has experience in cross-jurisdictional transactions where property in the UK is being acquired or let to or by clients in other jurisdictions, including USA, Europe, Malaysia, Russia and China.

Charles is able to advise on:

• Landlord and tenant matters – leases, licences to assign, surrenders, assignments;
• Sales and purchases of owner occupied property, and related secured lending transactions and other finance transactions, including sale and leaseback transactions;
• Sales and purchases of investment property (usually commercial but including some residential and development land);
• Some development related work acting for tenant’s or buyers or buildings to be constructed or which have been recently constructed;
• Options and conditional contracts, overage;
• Secure lending, acting for borrowers and lenders, including several banks, both in the UK and overseas.

Examples of his recent work includes:

• Exchange on a sale and leaseback transaction involving a warehouse worth about £65m, involving overseas buyers;
• Completing a lease of a newly constructed warehouse with a significant rent, working with planning and construction colleagues;
• Finalising a secured lending transaction for a Bank lending on a leasehold property comprising a portfolio of shops. And a loan of about £2.4m.
• Acting for a chain of expanding high quality coffee shops and completion of four leases recently in central London.

Charles is a member of the Law Society and qualified as a solicitor in 1990.

Charles’ personal testimonials:

Legal 500 (2023) – “Charles Hodder is a friendly and experienced lawyer, who finds practical solutions to get the task done on time.”

Outside of work Charles enjoys running and cycling, and of course family, and dogs. He has also been a rugby union referee for 17 years with the London Society of Rugby Football Union Referees, and in the last 6 years has been on a London-wide panel at the top of the community game.