SIPP & SSAS Property Pension Solicitors

A Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) or a Small Self-Administered Scheme (SSAS) can buy and hold commercial property directly, such as offices, shops, warehouses, industrial units, surgeries and land.

Done correctly, the advantages can be substantial: rent paid by your business to your pension is deductible against its profits and received by the scheme free of income tax, the property grows in value free of capital gains tax, and the asset sits outside your business, protected if the company later fails.

Done incorrectly, the scheme faces an unauthorised payment charge and a scheme sanction charge that together can remove most of the value from the transaction. The margin for error is narrow, and it is why professional trustees insist on specialist legal advice.

At Awdry Law, we understand that buying commercial property through your pension can feel overwhelming, with complex regulations and additional parties to manage. Our commercial property pension solicitors provide expert legal advice to help you work through these challenges safely and efficiently, acting for professional pension scheme providers and individual members alike, as a trusted source of advice and support throughout Wiltshire, the South West and beyond.

Buying and Managing Commercial Property in Pension Funds

The lifecycle of a commercial property held in a pension

Pension property is not a single transaction. It is an asset your scheme will own, let, manage and eventually dispose of, and each stage carries its own legal requirements. Our experienced commercial property pension solicitors can act at every stage.

Here is an overview of the different stages and how we can assist:

1. Acquisition (Commercial conveyancing)

Title investigation, Commercial Property Standard Enquiries and searches — the same due diligence as any commercial purchase, but reported in the form the professional trustee requires.
Environmental investigation — Trustees are unusually cautious here, because contamination liability can attach to the current owner. A clean environmental search is often a condition of the trustee proceeding at all.
VAT and the option to tax — The scheme may need to register for VAT and opt to tax in order to recover VAT on the purchase price — a decision that then obliges it to charge VAT on the rent for 20 years.
SDLT — Non-residential rates apply. Your solicitor files the return and pays HMRC within 14 days of completion.
Borrowing and lender liaison — Where the scheme borrows, the lender takes a charge over the property and the trustee’s requirements and the lender’s requirements must be reconciled.
Registration of the transfer and the charge at the Land Registry.

2. Grant of the occupational lease

The property must produce rent, and that means a lease. Where the tenant is your own business, the lease is a connected-party transaction and HMRC expects it to be on genuinely commercial, arm’s-length terms:

An open market rent, supported by an independent RICS valuation — not a figure chosen for convenience.
Rent actually paid, on time, and enforced if it is not. A pension landlord that tolerates arrears from a connected tenant is not behaving as a landlord.
Standard commercial terms — full repairing and insuring obligations, rent review, and usually contracting out of the security of tenure provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.

We grant leases to member tenants and to third party tenants, and advise on the terms that keep the arrangement compliant.

3. Ongoing management

Licences — to assign, to sublet, to alter.
Lease renewals, variations and surrenders.
Rent reviews and their documentation.
Compliance through the life of the asset — asbestos management, fire risk assessment, and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard, under which a property rated below E cannot lawfully be let. For a pension landlord an unlettable property is an asset producing no return.
Loans by the scheme, including SSAS loanbacks to the sponsoring employer, which must be secured by a first legal charge and documented on the terms HMRC prescribes.

4. Exit

Sale of the property by the scheme — Gains are free of capital gains tax within the scheme, which is a significant advantage over holding personally or through a trading company.
In specie transfer, where you move your pension and therefore the property itself to a different provider without selling it. The property transfers as an asset rather than as cash, and where a mortgage moves with it, SDLT considerations arise.
Connected-party transactions — transferring property you already own into the scheme, or the scheme selling it back out. These are the transactions most closely scrutinised, and the ones where valuation, SDLT and the lease-back terms need to be settled together rather than in sequence.

Who our commercial property pension solicitors act for

Our SIPP & SSAS property specialists routinely act for professional trustees and scheme administrators in the purchase, mortgage, management and eventual sale of commercial property held through SIPP and SSAS schemes, including:

Dentons Pension Management
Boolers
Curtis Banks
SSAS Reviews

We act equally for individual members and for the businesses that occupy pension-owned premises — and we are used to sitting between the two, alongside your financial adviser and accountant.

How our SIPP & SSAS property solicitors can help

Purchasing commercial property through a SIPP or SSAS — guiding you from offer to completion, including lender liaison and coordination with the professional trustee.
Selling property held within a pension scheme — timing, VAT, and the trustee’s requirements on release of the asset.
Connected-party transactions — transferring existing property into the scheme and dealing with occupational leases back to the member or their business.
Grant of occupational leases and ongoing management — licences, renewals, rent reviews, variations and surrenders.
In specie transfers — moving the property asset to a different pension provider without a sale.
Loans by the scheme — including SSAS loanbacks to a sponsoring employer, secured and documented correctly.

What we do and do not do

We are regulated solicitors, not financial advisers. We do not advise on whether a pension property purchase is right for you, on the suitability of a scheme, or on your wider retirement planning.

Those are questions for your regulated financial adviser and your accountant, and we work alongside them rather than in place of them.

What we do as your trusted commercial property partner is make sure that the decision you have taken is executed correctly, ensuring that the property is what you think it is, that the scheme can lawfully hold it, and that the lease, the borrowing and the paperwork will still stand up when HMRC, a lender, or a departing co-trustee looks at them.

Can my pension buy the premises my business trades from?

Yes, and it is the most common reason clients come to us. Your SIPP or SSAS buys the property and grants a lease to your trading company.

The company pays rent, which is deductible against its corporation tax; the scheme receives that rent free of income tax; and the property grows in value free of capital gains tax.

In effect, money that would have gone to a third-party landlord builds your own retirement fund instead. The lease must be on arm’s-length commercial terms at an independently valued market rent. That is the condition of the whole structure working.

Can a SIPP or SSAS borrow money to buy a property?

Yes, up to 50% of the scheme’s net asset value. A scheme holding £400,000 can therefore borrow up to £200,000, giving £600,000 of purchasing power. The borrowing is the scheme’s, secured on the property, and the lender will want the rental income to cover it comfortably.

Where members pool funds, several SIPPs buying together, or a SSAS with multiple member trustees, the borrowing capacity rises with the combined fund.

Can my pension buy a residential property?

No. Residential property is taxable property, and acquiring it exposes the member to an unauthorised payment charge of 40%, potentially a further 15% surcharge, and a scheme sanction charge on the administrator.

The prohibition catches things people do not expect: a flat above a shop, a caretaker’s accommodation, a residential ground rent. If any part of the property you are considering is or was residential, raise it with us before you make an offer.

Can I transfer a property I already own into my pension?

Often, yes — by in specie contribution or by the scheme purchasing it from you. Both are connected-party transactions and attract close scrutiny.

The property must be independently valued, SDLT may be payable where there is chargeable consideration such as an assumed mortgage, and if you or your business will continue to occupy it, a compliant lease must be granted at the same time.

The tax outcome depends on which route is used, so this needs your accountant and your solicitor working together from the outset.

What happens to the property if my business fails?

It is one of the strongest reasons for the structure. Because the property is owned by the pension scheme and not by the company, it sits outside the company’s estate and is generally beyond the reach of its creditors on insolvency.

The trading business can fail, while the premises and your retirement fund survive. The scheme simply re-lets to a new tenant.

Can several people pool their pensions to buy one property?

Yes. Several SIPPs can co-own a property as tenants in common in agreed shares, and a SSAS pools its members’ funds by default. Pooling raises the purchasing power and the borrowing capacity, but it also creates a relationship that needs documenting.

For example, what happens when one member wants to sell, retires, dies, or falls out with the others.

Do I need a solicitor if the SIPP provider has its own legal team?

The professional trustee’s requirements are about protecting the scheme, not about protecting your interests as a member or as the occupying business.

Someone still has to investigate the title, raise the enquiries, negotiate the contract, get the lease terms right and reconcile the trustee’s demands with the lender’s.

That’s what our commercial property solicitors can help you with and providers often instruct us precisely because it makes their own process faster.

Why choose our commercial property pension solicitors?

At Awdry Law, our team of pension property solicitors prioritise understanding your investment objectives before offering tailored legal advice.

Our leading commercial property team works closely with pension scheme members, financial advisers and property professionals to ensure optimal outcomes, and combines detailed knowledge of pension regulations with practical conveyancing expertise.

Here is why our clients choose to instruct our commercial property solicitors when buying or managing property through a pension scheme:

Specialist SIPP and SSAS experience — We regularly work with major pension providers and their specific panel requirements, forms and sign-off processes.
Established relationships — Professional networks with SIPP valuers, surveyors, environmental consultants and pension specialists.
Transparent pricing — Clear fee structures designed for pension property transactions.
Practical approach — Commercial advice focused on getting transactions completed efficiently.
Ongoing support — Continued legal guidance for lease management and compliance issues for as long as the scheme holds the asset.

Contact our commercial property solicitors for advice you can trust

If you are considering investing in commercial property through a SIPP or SSAS, or you already hold one and need help with a lease, a transfer or a sale, call our commercial property team today on 01793 384140 to learn how we can help.

Alternatively, you can complete our quick enquiry form and one of our team will get back to you promptly.

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