Licences

Licences

Licences are entered into for various reasons in connection with construction projects.

Licences are used to give the owner of property a means of giving permission to a third party to access, occupy and/or use their property (or part of it) for a period of time and for specific purposes so that the third party (typically the contractor) is not trespassing by accessing that land for those purposes.

The most common licences entered into in respect of construction projects are:

•
oversail licence—licence entered into between a developer and/or its contractor and the owner of adjoining land over which the contractor’s crane needs to oversail (ie travel over) to give the developer and/or the contractor the adjoining owner’s permission for the crane to swing over their land and to agree the terms of use of the crane. See Practice Note: Oversail licences and Precedent: Crane oversailing licence—with tenant. With regard to the use of cranes, see also Q&A: Does the Tower Cranes register still exist?
•
scaffold licence—licence entered into where a contractor needs to erect scaffolding for the purposes of its works on land belonging

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