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LATEST NEWS

Have You Checked Your Investment Adviser's Credentials?

23rd June, 2017 By Arman Khosravi

Investment advice is best obtained from authorised professionals and it is unwise to rely on friends' recommendations, no matter how trustworthy they may appear. In one case that proved the point, a currency trader who turned to fraud and lost £500,000 of private investors' money received a six-year prison sentence. The man had set up a legitimate business through which he traded on international currency exchanges on his own account. However, a series of reckless deals led to financial problems and he began to invest money on behalf of 28...

Power of Attorney Fees Fall

20th June, 2017 By Arman Khosravi

With the recent furore over the Government's proposed increase in the cost of obtaining probate on larger estates, currently on ice owing to lack of parliamentary time in the run up to the General Election, it is nice to see that the direction of change in costs charged by the state is not inexorably upward. On 1 April, the cost of registering a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) reduced from £110 to £82, after the Court of Protection realised that the number of LPAs being registered meant that its income...

Danger of Subletting Exposed as Court Orders Flat Sale

15th June, 2017 By Arman Khosravi

Owning a long leasehold, particularly one in a block of flats or which is part of a larger development, can be very different from owning a freehold. Typically the obligations of tenants are more proscriptive, being based on an acknowledgement that parts of the property are common and that there will be other people nearby whose rights need to be respected. A recent case shows how important these issues can be. It involved an elderly widow who ran a bed and breakfast business from her £2.8 million flat in breach...

Uninsured Drivers and Compensation Claims

12th June, 2017 By Arman Khosravi

When accidents cause damage or injury and the responsible driver is uninsured, a claim can be made to the Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB), an organisation financed by motor insurers with the intention of compensating those who have been involved in accidents with uninsured drivers or those who cannot be traced. The existence of the MIB is the result of governmental insistence that insurers should operate a safety net for those involved in accidents with uninsured or untraced drivers. However, it is controlled by the motor insurance industry and is not...