UK house prices jumped 0.7% between March and April
July 31st 2019By Elizabeth Crouch Head of Residential Conveyancing The latest House Price Index figures show that the cost of an average home in the UK jumped 0.7% between March and April. The annual rise to April was 1.4%, bringing the cost of the average property to £228,903. In England, the annual rise was 1.1%, with the average property costing £245,128. The regional data for England shows that: the North East experienced…
Buyer of insurance firm compensated for warranty breach
July 29th 2019A company has been compensated for a breach of warranty after it bought an insurance firm. David Tew Associate Solicitor reports on this recent case. The case involved a firm that sold policies related to motor or household insurance. When it was sold in 2014, the seller provided warranties that the company accounts were accurate and a fair representation of the company’s financial situation. The agreement stated that the seller…
Parental leave is not equivalent to statutory maternity leave
July 25th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR Two recent cases involving fathers taking paternity leave have highlighted a defining difference between parental leave and a mother’s statutory maternity leave. One male employee who worked for a technology firm sued for sex discrimination after his employers insisted he should not be paid at the same rate as mothers on statutory maternity leave. A similar case saw a policeman claim sex…
Property owner must pay £81,000 for work completed on cancelled job
July 22nd 2019By Stephanie Johnson Associate A dispute between a property owner and builder has been settled by the High Court, with the owner ordered to pay for work completed, even though he was not happy with it and the job was cancelled. The parties had entered into a JCT minor works building contract for work to be done on the owner’s property. However, after some initial work had been completed, the…
Ambulance staff entitled to have overtime included in holiday pay
July 18th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A court ruling in a dispute between ambulance workers and the NHS could affect employers across all sectors when it comes to factoring overtime into holiday pay. The dispute centred on whether ambulance staff were entitled to have an average amount of their voluntary overtime pay included when calculating their holiday pay. The Employment Tribunal ruled in favour of the NHS Trust,…
New measures being planned to ensure SMEs are paid on time
July 15th 2019By Carly Davies Credit Control & Debt Recovery The government is planning to ease the cash flow burden on small firms by making the boards of large companies accountable for late payments to suppliers. It is part of an ongoing effort to tackle the issue of late payment, which can be the difference between success and failure for many SMEs. Large companies could also face fines and have binding payment…
Worker was discriminated against because of poor language skills
July 11th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR The Employment Tribunal has ruled that a transport worker was discriminated against because of his ‘lack of command’ of the English language. Mr A Khawaja, from Pakistan, worked for Transport for London (TfL) but was overlooked for development opportunities such as training and conference calls. The office held conference calls twice a day and the team members also took part in regular…
Unmarried fathers – do you have parental responsibility for your child?
July 4th 2019By Laura Ousby Solicitor Unmarried couples often assume they have the same automatic rights as married couples but unfortunately, this is not the case. For unmarried fathers, one of the most alarming consequences is that they may suddenly discover they don’t have official parental responsibility for their children, even if they have been caring for them and looking after them for several years. We should perhaps clarify what is meant…
Woman asked for massage by boss wins sexual harassment claim
June 27th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A woman who was repeatedly asked to massage her managing director has won a sexual harassment claim. Emma Woolf worked as a sales manager for thermal cooling material provider, Universal Science. When she booked a two bedroom flat for a trade show, managing director James Stratford said that he would also attend the show and share the flat. His conduct throughout the…
Probation officer unfairly dismissed after accusation of abuse
June 26th 2019By Joanne Stronach Head of Employment & HR A probation officer has won her case of unfair dismissal after being accused of developing an abusive and controlling relationship with a former offender. Julia Hyland had worked as a probation officer for the Greater Manchester Probation Service since 1998. She was given the role of senior case manager for an individual referred to only as the Service User (SU) who had…
