Company loses $3m because of conflicting contract terms
June 3rd 2021A company has lost $3m dollars because it had agreed to contradictory contract terms when entering into a purchase agreement. Sam Lyon Head of Corporate & Commercial reports on this recent case. The case involved Septo Trading Inc, which contracted to import fuel oil supplied by Tintrade Ltd. The terms were recorded in an email confirmation (the Recap). A clause in the Recap stated that a quality certificate issued by…
Court outlines the meaning of ‘deathbed gifts’ in inheritance cases
June 1st 2021The High Court has provided some useful guidelines on what is required for a person’s statements to be legally classed as ‘deathbed gifts’ in inheritance cases. The court was asked to determine the proper distribution of the estate of a married couple. The wife died in January 2019 of cancer and the husband died of a heart attack shortly after in May 2019. The couple had each executed a will…
Safety first when it comes to e-scooters
June 1st 2021Electric scooters or e-scooters have become increasingly popular in recent years, and are now a common sight in our towns and cities. Thinking it over with Carol Fish Director & Head of Serious and Catastrophic Injury… As part of its Future of Transport regulatory review, the Government currently is rolling out trials of e-scooter rentals across the country, with Copeland one of a number of areas chosen to assess the safety and…
Court settles siblings’ dispute over their mother’s will
May 28th 2021The High Court has refused to allow a man to remortgage his deceased mother’s house after her three other children disputed the validity of a purported will and where there was reason to believe that she had been subjected to undue influence. Rebecca Armstrong Associate Solicitor reports on this recent case. The property was a five-bedroom house in south London in which the mother had lived since her divorce in…
Changes to the laws on Agricultural Holdings
May 27th 2021Changes to the laws on Agricultural Holdings come into force on 21 June 2021, allowing tenants to demand changes to their tenancy or consent from their landlord, where the landlord will not agree. Jonathan Carroll Director and Head of Agriculture provides an update. Agricultural Holdings Act The snappily titled “Agricultural Holdings (Requests for Landlord’s Consent or Variation of Terms and the Suitability Test) (England) Regulations 2021” allow a tenant of an…
Law firm doubles house transactions as research says UK market on course to be busiest since 2007
May 26th 2021A LEADING legal firm has doubled its number of house sale transactions over the past year, in line with a national trend in the property market.As research released today predicted that this year’s housing market is on course to be the busiest since 2007, Cartmell Shepherd Solicitors said its property department had seen a huge jump in transactions since last April. According to the property website Zoopla around 1.52 million…
Sleep-in care workers lose final appeal over minimum wage
May 24th 2021Care workers who slept overnight at their workplace were “available for work” rather than “working” and so were not entitled to be paid the national minimum wage for the whole of their sleep-in shift. Joanne Stronach Director & Head of Employment and HR reports on this recent case. That was the decision of the Supreme Court in two cases that have major implications for residential care homes. Care workers who…
New 95% mortgages for first-time buyers and existing homeowners
May 20th 2021The government’s new scheme to help people buy a home with a 95% mortgage has now come into effect. Mandy Shum Conveyancer in our property team provides an update. It means buyers can now get on the property ladder even if they only have a 5% deposit. The mortgages are available to both first-time buyers and existing homeowners for houses costing up to £600,000. The government will offer lenders the…
Leaseholders not liable for cost of repairing structural defects
May 17th 2021The Court of Appeal has ruled that a group of leaseholders were not responsible for the cost of repairs if those repairs also made good fundamental structural defects in their properties. Natalie Tatton Solicitor reports on this recent case. The leases related to flats situated in a large block constructed in 1957. They were for 125-year terms and were originally granted under the right to buy provisions in the Housing…
Business Commissioner to prioritise crackdown on late payments
May 12th 2021The newly appointed Small Business Commissioner is to spearhead a national effort to crack down on late payment of invoices – which cause thousands of small businesses to close every year. Carly Davies Debt Recovery Manager provides an update. Former journalist Liz Barclay will be the first woman to hold the position, which was created in 2016 to help small businesses secure the payments owed to them and to galvanise UK…
