Director held personally responsible for company’s unpaid invoice
November 19th 2018By Peter Stafford , Cartmell Shepherd’s Managing Director A director has been held personally liable to pay the full market value of products that had been supplied to her company shortly before it went into liquidation. The claim against the director arose from her company’s failure to pay for a cargo of sunflower oil sold to it by a supplier in October 2012. The supplier argued that it had entered into…
Chancellor increases Living and Minimum wage rates
November 8th 2018Scott Garson Practice Manager Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced increases to the minimum wage rates. During his Budget speech, Mr Hammond said the National Living Wage will rise by 4.9%, from £7.83 to £8.21 from next April. This amounts to a £690 annual pay increase for a full-time worker. These are the increases recommended by the Low Pay Commission (LPC) and accepted in full by the government. They will come into…
Landlord stops leaseholder letting out flat on Airbnb
November 5th 2018Elizabeth Crouch Senior Solicitor A landlord has succeeded in legal action to prevent a leaseholder letting out his flat on short-term lets using websites such as Airbnb. The landlord was the freeholder of a building which had been converted into flats. Many of the flats had been sub-let by the leaseholders on assured shorthold tenancies, usually for a minimum of six months. One of the tenants started using his flat…
Call for evidence to combat late payments to small businesses
November 2nd 2018Mark Aspin, Director and Head of Dispute Resolution The government is urging businesses to highlight their experiences of late payment and put forward ideas to ensure earlier settlement, especially by large companies. One in four UK businesses say that late payments are a threat to their survival. Research by the Federation of Small Businesses suggests that prompt payments could add £2.5 billion to the UK economy and keep an extra…
High five for legal firm after it is named in national top 100 list!
October 12th 2018A LEGAL business has been named in an influential top 100 list for the fifth consecutive year. Cartmell Shepherd is the only law firm in Cumbria to make the national Lex 100, which is based on reviews submitted by trainees. The business is ‘friendly, outgoing and goes out of its way to help people,’ according to the list publishers. The Lex verdict read: “Based in Cumbria and Northumberland, Cartmell Shepherd…
Simplified rules on buying or extending your leasehold home
October 5th 2018By Laura Bright Solicitor If you own a leasehold property and want to extend the length of the lease, or buy the property, the procedure (known as ‘enfranchisement’) is currently a complicated, costly and time consuming one. Radical reforms to provide a better deal for leaseholders who want to purchase the freehold or to extend the lease of their home have been put forward by the Law Commission. The proposals…
Building an engaged and loyal team is one of the best ways to project a business as a fantastic place to work …
September 24th 2018Building an engaged and loyal team is one of the best ways to project a business as a fantastic place to work, a conference heard. And having a plan to actively market a company to potential employees ‘who may not even know they want to work there’ will give bosses a head start in the increasingly tough battle for talent. The two themes were high on the agenda as representatives…
Farming Partnerships – Things to be Careful
September 21st 2018By Jonathan Carroll, Head of Agriculture Yet again a farming family dispute has led to huge legal costs, when a decent partnership agreement would have prevented it for a tiny fraction of the sums lost. The Wild family farmed Beard Hall Farm from 1965, which was owned by dad, Ben. Ben and his wife Jean brought their son, Malcolm, into the partnership in 1978 when he was just 16, but…
Developer can’t dodge paying extra £750,000 for land
August 28th 2018Elizabeth Crouch, Senior Associate and Head of Residential Conveyancing considers a recent Court of Appeal case where a developer has been ordered to pay an extra £750,000. A developer has been ordered to pay an extra £750,000 for land that was sold subject to the condition that the price would increase if planning permission for houses was granted. The issue arose after the developer purchased property from a landowner to redevelop…
Sleep-in care workers ‘not entitled to minimum wage’
August 24th 2018Joanne Stronach, Head of Employment & HR, considers the recent Court of Appeal cases regarding sleep in workers. The decision by the Court of Appeal in two recent cases – Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson Blake and Shannon v Jaikishan and Rampersad (trading as Clifton House Residential Home) 2018 EWCA Civ 1641 – will have major implications for residential care homes. The Court of Appeal decided that care workers sleeping…
