Where a landlord or tenant breaches their repairing covenants on a let property, the other party is...

When you ask for a redemption statement from your mortgage lender, it can come as an unpleasant surprise to see an additional charge termed ‘mortgage exit administration fee’ (MEAF), which,...

A recent case raised the question of whether an association could consist of a single person. Whilst the question might not seem to be of...

When a person is unable to pursue a claim against someone who has been made bankrupt on account of the bankruptcy having been discharged,...

Home Information Packs (HIPs) are now required for most residential properties put on the market, but the list of...

A recent decision of the House of Lords may have opened the door for thousands of tenants of offices and other properties originally designed to be...

A man whose home was destroyed by fire claimed under his insurance policy. The policy gave the insurer the right to reinstate the...

Commercial buildings to be built, sold or let will in future require an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). The requirement is being phased in,  having...

Landlords (strictly ‘managers’) of Homes in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) are reminded that minimum standards were introduced on 1 October 2007, which include the requirement to:   ...

The Court of Appeal has recently issued a ruling that will be regarded with dismay by councils as it has allowed a man with a four-bedroom council house to retain it...

If trustees act in a way that gives rise to an unintended liability to tax, the situation can be put right by going to court to have the trust deed rectified. Traditionally, all the trustee had to do was to persuade the court...

Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, the person responsible for the management of a building site is required, if the construction phase involves more than 30 calendar days or 500 person-days of work, to appoint a Construction...

The high cost of long-term care in the UK is a well known problem to anyone responsible for funding it. Depending on the circumstances, the cost of such care can be the responsibility of a number of different entities and...

The number of individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) is set to soar to over 50,000 this year, according to industry sources. This follows two years in which the number of IVAs has been slightly more than 40,000 per year.   One of...

If you are subject to a long delay or the cancellation of your flight when on holiday, the airline is required to give you a leaflet outlining your right to compensation. If the delay or cancellation means that...

When an application is made to register land by adverse possession (the legal term for ‘squatters’ rights’), the onus is on the person claiming possession of the land to prove their right to claim the title to it. ...

The recent Inheritance Tax (IHT) change which allows the transfer of ‘unused’ nil rate bands from spouse to spouse or from civil partner to civil partner has been generally welcomed, but it has caused some consternation as determining the...

With less than a week to go until the Budget, the newspapers are rife with speculation about the changes to the tax system that Chancellor Alistair Darling will...

Land with planning permission for use for commercial or industrial purposes is generally quite a lot more valuable than agricultural land, so when a pharmaceutical company realised they had ‘legitimised’ the use of their land for what they...

Failure to make contractual terms clear is a sure recipe for trouble and in construction contracts, where the sums of money involved can be substantial, getting the contract terms agreed up front is always sensible. In a recent case, a...

The Home Information Pack team of the Department for Communities and Local Government has warned that some HIP providers are using what are called 'register views' of the...

HMRC have announced measures which are aimed at reducing the number of occasions when a report has to be made for IHT purposes. Draft regulations published recently will apply to excepted...

The Court of Appeal has reversed the decision of a lower court and decided that the financial settlement between a man and his ex-wife could not be used to pay the husband’s debts after he became bankrupt two years after their divorce. ...

With the economy seemingly set for a downturn, hopes are high that interest rates will be eased to reduce the risk of a full-scale recession. A recent poll of 49 economists showed that 44 of those believe that the Bank of England will cut its base rate by a...

The long-term lover of a man who had promised to marry her but died before they could wed has received more than £1m from his £3m estate. Multimillionaire Henry Bahouse and former dental nurse Cyd Negus had a...