LATEST NEWS

As a recent case shows, whilst there is legislation which, in certain circumstances, allows leaseholders to obtain the right to manage the buildings they occupy, the process is replete with traps and it makes sense to proceed in such cases only with the advice of an expert property lawyer. The case concerned a 'right to manage' company that had been formed with a view to taking over the management of a block of 40 flats. Pursuant to procedures laid down by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, the company...

When a taxpayer named Mr Coomber sent his cheque by post to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to settle his tax demand, he thought that would be the end of the matter. He paid the tax bill on 2 February 2016 and, as late as 1 March 2016, HMRC mistakenly told his agent that there was a 'nil' balance on his tax account. However, on viewing his bank statements in early March, he saw that the cheque had been wrongly dishonoured by the bank on 4 February 2016. He rapidly made...

In general, there is a presumption that on divorce the assets will be split more or less equally, but that is based on case law interpretation of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, not statute. Currently, a Bill in the House of Lords (the Divorce (Financial Provision) Bill) proposes to create a statutory presumption of equality, thus superseding the judge-made law currently used. A recent case may give added impetus to the argument for a more certain basis for the division of family assets on divorce. In it, a wife (a...

Will disputes can be extremely bitter and the kind of skulduggery depicted in fiction sadly sometimes reflects reality. In one case, the High Court found that a well-respected accountant had forged his mother's will in order to gain control of business interests worth $50 million. The woman signed a will in 1986 by which she left her entire estate to one of her four sons. However, some years after their mother's death, one of his younger brothers produced another purported will, said to have been executed in 2005. If valid,...