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Prioritising prompt payment of your tax bills can be tough, particularly when there are other compelling and unforeseen demands on your limited resources. In a case on point, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) came to the aid of a man who dipped into his tax reserve to pay for his elderly mother's care after she suffered a stroke. After his mother fell ill, the man had to move to be closer to her. She had insufficient income to pay all of her nursing home fees so, with no support from his...

Oliver Fisher trainee Nilaufar Alothiya has successfully overturned a decision that her client was non-priority need for housing, following a homelessness application to the City of Westminster. Details of the homelessness application Ms Alothiya, under the supervision of Ms Martha Mpangile, represented a client who had been living with her mother in a one-bedroom flat since June 2019. The flat was overcrowded, and when it was no longer possible for the client to remain, she made a homelessness application to her local Housing Solutions Service. Although the service acknowledged that the client...

It is not only in the realms of fiction that lovers choose to marry in secret, away from the gaze of their disapproving families. A highly unusual High Court case, however, showed the legal difficulties that can arise from such arrangements. The case concerned a former couple who, without telling their families, went through a ceremony of marriage in Madrid in 1993. About a year later, after their families' attitude to their relationship had mellowed, they went through a second marriage ceremony in London. The marriage did not prosper and, after...

Tenants should take professional advice before renting out their homes to short-term paying guests via Airbnb, Booking.com or other internet booking sites. In a case on point, a couple who failed to take that sensible step placed themselves in jeopardy by breaching the terms of their lease. The couple held their flat under a 125-year lease. In common with a great many such properties, the lease contained a covenant that forbade the flat's use for any purpose other than as a private dwelling house for occupation by one family at...