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If your neighbours have obtained planning permission for building works to which you object, you may think that is the end of the matter. However, as one case strikingly showed, with the right legal advice you can still win the day. A company obtained planning permission to build a large, six-bedroom family home on a vacant plot of land. The project, however, would breach a restrictive covenant in the plot's title deeds which forbade construction of any substantial buildings in front of a line 50 feet away from its rear...

Senior partner and statutory tenancies expert Russell Conway rescues rent act tenant from a deal with hidden costs, to secure a £1.8 million cash settlement for her small one-bedroom flat. Regulated tenancies The client in question had a regulated tenancy under the Rent Act 1977, which entitled her to the following protections: Regulated tenants pay a ‘fair rent’ which is often substantially lower than market value; Regulated tenants can only be evicted by court order, and a legal reason for eviction must be proved (such as rent arrears). Due to the one...

People often talk about putting their affairs in order but then sit on their hands until it is too late. The serious consequences of delay in seeking legal advice were underlined by a case in which a woman waited until she was resident in a hospice, terminally ill with cancer, before instructing a solicitor to prepare her will. The woman signed her will 10 days before her death. Her main asset was a house she jointly owned with her mother, who survived her by about four years. An issue of...

Unmarried couples should be under no illusions that they have legal rights equivalent to those who have tied the knot. The point could hardly have been more powerfully made than by a case concerning an unmarried former couple whose close-knit life together yielded three children and a family business. During their relationship, the couple were the sole directors and equal shareholders of a company that ran a vehicle repair and MOT garage. Had they been married, the value of the business would have formed part of the financial pot to...