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Letting your land stand vacant, going to rack and ruin, inevitably carries the risk that a squatter will obtain title to it. A woman who inherited a small but strategic strip of land from her builder father came within an ace of suffering that fate. The strip was deliberately retained by the woman's father after his firm constructed a small housing estate in the 1970s. Following its transfer to her, the woman, who lived many miles away, took little or no interest in it. After it became overgrown by weeds,...

There is a general principle that a person may leave their estate to anyone they wish, but legislation exists – the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 – to allow people dependent on a deceased person to claim against the estate if they are not provided for in the will. It is unusual for such cases to be brought by the spouse of the deceased unless they were separated or had fallen out. However, a recent case was an exception. It involved a man whose will, made in...

The Government is warning people to be on alert for fraudsters posing as court bailiffs and enforcement officers on the telephone. After claiming to be County Court bailiffs, High Court Enforcement Officers (HCEOs) or Certificated Enforcement Agents (CEAs), the scammers go on to say that the person they are calling owes money, before demanding that the money be transferred into a bank account. HM Courts and Tribunals Service has confirmed that it will never telephone to ask for bank details or to demand a bank transfer using a sort code and...

Race discrimination may not be intentional, but it can be deeply hurtful and, with the right legal advice, victims can both express their disgust and secure compensation. In a striking case on point, a Sikh couple who were rejected as potential adopters because of their ethnicity were awarded substantial damages. The high-earning professional couple were born and raised in England and considered themselves culturally British, whilst acknowledging their Indian heritage. After making numerous attempts to conceive by IVF, they realised that they were unlikely to have a child biologically their...