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Clients are reminded that, following the introduction of the Stamp Duty Land Tax (Administration) (Amendment) Regulations 2018, the time limit for the payment of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on property transactions has been reduced from 30 days to 14 days after completion, with effect from 1 March 2019. Where the amount of SDLT cannot be determined because the sale price is contingent on obtaining planning permission, an application to defer the SDLT payable must be made within 30 days of completion. There are other consequential changes to the procedure,...

The impossibility of asking a deceased person what their real intentions were makes the value of these being clear before death quite obvious, as a recent case shows. It involved an elderly widow who died in 2016. After her death, her family discovered an envelope containing a copy of a will dated 2008 and an unsigned draft of the will which her solicitors had prepared for her. The original could not be found, however.  She had added a codicil to the will in 2010 and the original codicil was found...

Having enough money to pay for care costs in the final years of life is a major concern for many and, despite promises made by governments in the past about limiting the impact on people, in reality the scale of the problem is such that the potential impact on a person's estate has risen year by year. Care costs will only be fully met by the local authority when the assets of the person needing care fall below £14,250. When assets are above £23,250, the costs must be fully met...

The welfare of children is always top of the list of priorities of the Family Court when making arrangements following the break-up of a family. This can be especially difficult where the parents are from different countries, as shown by a recent case in which the Court considered the welfare of a child of a Mexican mother and an English father. When the child, aged seven, had expressed a wish to return to live in Mexico, the CAFCASS official appointed as the child's guardian recommended that this did not occur....