LATEST NEWS

One of the benefits of building your own home is that you can claim back VAT paid on materials used in the project – but rebate applications have to be made within three months of the property's completion. That time limit came under analysis in a case concerning a couple who took almost 20 years to achieve their grand design. The couple had long wished to build their own home and obtained planning consent for a detached property in 1998. Work progressed slowly, however. Although they moved in in 2010,...

Even people of the greatest intellect can be affected by diminished mental ability in old age and that is one good reason why it makes sense to execute a professionally drafted will sooner rather than later. A case on point concerned an eminent former judge who was suffering from short-term memory loss when he signed his final will. The combined effect of a will that the man signed in 2001 and a subsequent codicil was that, if his second wife died before him and bequeathed him their marital home in...

Fraudulent investment schemes are perennially tempting to the unwary and it really does make sense to take independent professional advice before parting with your money. In one case, the High Court found compelling evidence that hundreds of small investors had fallen victim to such a scheme. About 240 investors claimed to have been lured into a fraudulent commodity trading scheme by marketing literature which promised exceptionally high, and essentially risk-free, returns. The scheme was promoted by an overseas company that was later dissolved. After the scheme was closed, the majority...

Your privacy rights will die with you, but that does not mean that just anyone will be permitted access to your medical records after you are gone. The extent to which such records should remain under wraps post mortem was analysed in a High Court test case. A man believed that his brother had, some years prior to his death, arranged to have samples of his sperm frozen at a fertility clinic. As personal representative of his brother's estate, he asked the clinic to provide him with copies of all...