South East: Trio of associate appointments at Vail Williams

Property consultancy, Vail Williams LLP, has appointed three new starters to its Crawley and London offices, following a string of new client appointments.

Jennifer Nicol and Derek Moore join as associates in the firm’s valuation and business rates teams, and Sami Salih has joined as regional facilities manager in the property asset management team.

Prior to this, she worked for the valuation office agency (VOA), valuing property for business rates and council tax. In her new role with Vail Williams, Nicol will support the firm’s valuation and investment teams in London, undertaking commercial property valuations and ‘red book’ valuations.

Sami Salih also joins Vail Williams’ London office and will be responsible for managing a portfolio of commercial and residential properties across the South East.

He joins from Cushman & Wakefield, where he managed a varied portfolio of properties across London and the South East, from residential properties in Marylebone to retail units for major occupiers including Halfords, Sports Direct and Argos. His facilities and portfolio management expertise has also seen him manage large multi-let office buildings at Canary Wharf in the City, for oversees clients based in Hong Kong.

James Lacey, regional managing partner (London) at Vail Williams, commented: “As the number of London-based portfolios that we manage increases, it is important that we grow our team to continue to provide excellence of service for our landlord and investor clients, so we are pleased to welcome Sami to the team.

“We continue to act for banks undertaking secured lending work, but also increasingly for family offices, high-net-worth individuals and property owners requiring valuations throughout London, so Jennifer’s expertise will be most welcome at what is a busy time.”

The final appointment is Moore who joined Vail Williams’ Crawley office as associate to support the firm’s busy business rates team, bringing with him a wealth of experience having previously worked for Gerald Eve, Altus Group and Savills.

Danny George, regional managing partner (Gatwick) and head of business rates at Vail Williams concluded: “I am delighted to welcome Derek to our team at a time when our clients continue to need our support and expertise. Derek brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in business rates, not only dealing with office, industrial and retail property but also having specialised in hotel, pub and leisure rating valuation.”

Moore will advise on all aspects of business rate mitigation for a range of developer, landlord and corporate occupier clients, with expertise in the industrial, office and leisure sectors. As a key client manager, he will also provide empty rates advice and estimates of rateable value (RV).

A full-service property consultancy with offices in the Midlands and north, South East and South Coast, Vail Williams advises on a broad range of property issues – from lease advice, property valuation and planning, to asset management and property acquisition and disposal.

The firm is a specialist provider of business rates advice, having expanded its business rates team with the acquisition of business rate specialists Bisset Moffatt Hill (2016), and the general rating division of Ruddle Merz (2017).