Chloë Merrington
Director
Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa Inc
Related services and key industries
Biography
Chloë is a real estate lawyer based in Cape Town. She focuses on property developments, property finance, renewable energy, conveyancing and various property related matters and transactions.
Chloë has extensive experience in residential, commercial and mixed use developments (sectional title and conventional properties) including drafting of the underlying property acquisition agreement/s, drafting the development sale agreements to end-purchasers, project management of the conveyancing processes and registration in the relevant Deeds Office. On the financing side, Chloë works closely with financial institutions in respect of development and end-user finance, undertaking pre-sale audits, miscellaneous small and large scale loans, and the registration of the underlying mortgage bonds as security for these loans.
Chloë has worked on numerous renewable energy projects in the South African REIPPP programme. Her skills include due diligence and land risk assessment, drafting and registering notarial deeds securing real rights in land such as long term leases, electrical and access servitudes (Eskom and private), waivers of preference and restrictions on free alienation of the land.
Chloë has experience with servitudes, notarial ties, consolidations and subdivisions of properties. Her practice involves property due diligences, which include research into current and historical title deed conditions, providing opinions on permitted uses of land and reviewing real and personal rights in immovable property.
Chloë joined Norton Rose Fulbright in 2013 and completed a six month secondment as a legal advisor with Nedbank Property Finance in 2015.
Chloë graduated from Stellenbosch University with BA PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) and LLB degrees and completed her articles at a prestigious commercial firm in Cape Town.
Professional experience
Collapse allBA PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) and LLB degree from the University of Stellenbosch.
- Attorney and Public Notary, qualified in South Africa
- Private company in renewable energy sector - Advised Project Company for five wind farms awarded Preferred Bidder under Round 4 of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme in South Africa, drafting and negotiating land agreements (including leases, electrical servitudes, waivers of preference) and attending to all associated deeds office registrations.
- Rabie Property Group - Assisted in advising on the Century City Urban Square sectional title development, comprising conference centre, hotel, residential, retail and office components, and attending to all associated deeds office registrations and drafting of servitudes and constitutional documents.
- Standard Bank of South Africa Limited - Assisted in advising and drafting of all the legal documents relating to the refinancing of the entire investment portfolio of a listed property fund and registration of the approved security in the Deeds Registry, with funding to the value of R8.7 Billion.
- Listed property fund - Due diligence and vetting of 101 residential sales in a mixed use development to establish secured deals to meet minimum requirement of development financier in order to drawdown the development loan (secured by mortgage bond of R800 million).
- Private Cape Town property developer - Advised on the registration and opening of a mixed use sectional title development with real right to extend the scheme comprising residential and retail components, undertaking initial due diligence into title conditions of the property, drafting of transactional sale and purchase agreements, development sale agreement to third party purchasers and POA constitution. Attended to all associated deeds office registrations, including development finance mortgage bonds.
Western Cape Professional of the Year 2018 - SA Women in Property Awards (Women's Property Network)
- "Digital disruption in commercial real estate" – Norton Rose Fulbright seminar, Cape Town, October 2017 and Women in Property Network seminar, Cape Town, April 2018. Chloë sat on a panel to discuss block chain technology and its potential in real estate transactions
- "The water crisis: How does it affect your business?" – Norton Rose Fulbright seminar, Cape Town, March 2018. Chloë presented and chaired a panel discussion on the legal implications of Cape Town water crisis on businesses