Private Client Solicitors in Margate, Canterbury, Broadstairs, Ramsgate and Birchington, Kent

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Ignore Court Orders At Your Peril A wealthy Omani man who failed to pay to his ex-wife the financial settlement ordered by the court, or to cooperate with disclosure orders, faces arrest if he attempts to return to the UK. When the couple's marriage broke up, they were divorced under Omani...
Failure to Challenge Repaving Results in Loss of Title Failing to take active steps to protect your land from use by another can produce unfortunate effects, as a couple from York discovered recently. The couple own a bungalow which has a front driveway adjacent to that of the next-door bungalow – a...
Just Because You Agree Doesn't Mean the Court Will It is common in legal disputes for the two sides to agree to suspend the court proceedings for a period so that they can get as much agreed between them as possible, and gather their evidence and prepare their arguments over what remains in dispute without...
Appealing Against a Tax Bill? Make Sure You Get a Fair Hearing! If you dispute a tax bill, you are entitled to a fair hearing of your appeal and specialist advice will ensure you get just that. In a case that demonstrates this point, a couple were relieved of a substantial Capital Gains Tax (CGT) demand after...
Care Costs - Wales Raises 'Asset Cap' It is not widely known that the 'cap' on assets above which people in residential care must fund their own care is only £23,250 in England and Northern Ireland. It is even less well known that elsewhere in the UK the cap is set at different levels. In...
Couple Outraged By 'Ugly Duckling' Home Cinema Win Six-Figure Damages If building works on your home go wrong, strong legal representation can ensure that you are properly compensated. In a recent case, a couple who paid over £400,000 for a state-of-the-art home cinema, but did not get the architectural jewel they had...
Absence of Evidence Dooms Unequal Shares Claim The legal ownership of property is not always the same as the beneficial ownership and disputes can arise when no documentation is executed to show the two are different. Such was the case in a recent dispute which occurred after a couple who had two...
No Will Means Negotiation to Decide Estate Split A professionally drafted will is something every adult should have. Not only does it provide certainty as to who should inherit your possessions after your death, but it will also make things a lot easier for your executor at a time that is usually...
Share Sale Tax Avoidance Scheme Fails the Reality Test Judges interpret tax statutes in the real world and are experienced at looking beyond the detailed provisions of intricate transactions to discern their actual purpose. In a case exactly on point, the Court of Appeal found that Capital Gains Tax (CGT) was...
Insurer Not Liable Where Driver Unidentifiable In order to sue someone, they have to be served with a notice of claim unless the service of the notice can be properly dispensed with. Can the notice of claim be properly dispensed with if the person being claimed against is not only unidentified, but...
No Fault Divorce Legislation Promised in Next Parliamentary Session The process of divorce in the UK has for many years been seen as rather long-winded and tending to produce more conflict than need be. One of the reasons for this is that the grounds which demonstrate an 'irretrievable breakdown' of a marriage – the...
High Court Rules Against Right to Rent The legislation that introduced the Right to Rent scheme, which went live in February 2016 and compels landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants, has never been popular with landlords or tenants. Recently, the High Court ruled that the...
Woman Who Assisted Husband's Suicide Can Inherit Estate The law in the UK is not supportive of people who assist, however unwillingly, those they love who want to die. Although such wishes are often borne out of suffering years of intractable pain or disability, assisting the suicide of another remains a criminal...
Court Denies Widow the Right to Challenge Trust Arrangements Trusts have been gradually falling out of favour, according to a recent report. It is thought that the fall of some 4 per cent in trusts submitting tax returns last year (and 30 per cent since 2003/2004) is due to both a lack of understanding of trusts and...
Mother Placed Under Improper Judicial Pressure to Consent to Care Orders The quality of British justice is respected around the world – but there are inevitably occasions when judges overstep the mark. In a family case on point, a mother had her two young children taken into care after a judge dismissed out of hand...
SDLT Reminder 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...
Lost Will Means Court Hearing in Family Dispute 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...
Care Home State Support Limits Unchanged for Ninth Year 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...
International Dimension Makes Child Travel Risky 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...
Is IHT Simplification On the Way? More than 550,000 people die annually in the UK and half of those deaths require the completion of Inheritance Tax (IHT) forms, which are not straightforward and can be a daunting burden at a difficult time for families. However, only 5 per cent of estates...
Fake Will Admission May Lead to Criminal Charges When your spouse's lack of attention to making a will causes issues, faking one is definitely not a good idea, as a Kent woman found out recently. Her husband died in 2013 leaving various properties in Spain and a flat in England, but no will. The woman...
High Court Decision Underlines the Finality of Divorce Arbitration Awards Divorcing couples can sometimes achieve savings of both time and money by opting for arbitration, rather than court proceedings, as a means of resolving any financial disputes. However, as a guideline High Court case underlined , arbitration has its...
Court Decides How Injured Child's Estate Should Be Distributed It is not uncommon for children born with severe abnormalities or injuries to die in childhood. In a recent case, the Court of Protection was required to decide how to divide the estate of a child who died when the lump-sum compensation settlement for...
No-fault divorce - a step forward but what about the bigger picture? When people first see Jonathan da Costa , head of family law at Boys & Maughan, they have usually made the decision to separate or get a divorce and started discussing it with their partner. At this point they are typically unaware of the variety of...
When a Covenant May Be More Than it Seems If you own or buy a property, you may find that there are covenants which apply to it, a covenant being a requirement to do something or refrain from doing something with your property. A covenant will benefit other property in the vicinity. Typically, a...
Attorney Allowed to Take Over as Executor It is commonplace for people to appoint siblings or friends as their executors. When they do and they are of a similar age, there is a risk that when the person who has made the will dies, the proposed executor will have predeceased them or lack the mental...
Sharing Principle - Court of Appeal Gives Guidance The application of the 'sharing principle' to big money divorces is more than a matter of simple mathematics, and what family judges aim to achieve is a broadly fair outcome for both sides. That was certainly so in one case in which the Court of Appeal...
Take Care if You Have a Carer Many people employ carers or cleaners to assist them with daily living. Quite often, such arrangements are informal and can last many years. However, failing to put them on a proper footing can prove to be an expensive mistake. Where an agency is used and...
Overcautious Approach Means Compensation for Pension Scheme Member With significant losses being reported in 'pension transfer scams', it is no surprise that when the administrators of a pension scheme receive a request to transfer a pension to a new scheme, they are expected to conduct an appropriate due diligence process....
Disinheriting Relatives Can Be a Recipe for Discord You may have good reasons for writing close relatives out of your will but, as any lawyer will tell you, the consequence of doing so can be family discord after you are gone. That was certainly so in one case concerning a father who disinherited his...
Tribunal Paves the Way for Suburban Garden Development Restrictions on land use appear in the title deeds of many properties – but the law permits their deletion or modification if they become obsolete over time or stand in the way of reasonable development. Exactly that happened in one case in which the...
Commercial Surrogacies Abroad Are Not Illegal - Court of Appeal Ruling Although commercial surrogacy businesses have long been banned in the UK, the Court of Appeal recently ruled that a clinical negligence victim would not be breaking the law were she to enter into such an arrangement in California, where a more liberal...
Social Media - Be Careful! The legal dispute between Elon Musk and Vernon Unsworth, the man who helped to rescue boys trapped in a cave in Thailand, may have dropped out of the press over the last few weeks, but a recent case shows the lack of accuracy of Mr Musk's assertion that...
Quality of Occupation Determines Tax-Free Status of Residential Property Gain The supposition that residential properties are exempt from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is a common, but incorrect, one. You would think, for example, that if a person only owns one property, sleeps there quite often, has post sent there and tells the council...
Son Who Did Not Do Enough Excluded From Farm Inheritance When parents changed their wills to exclude their son from inheriting their £1 million farm after a family falling-out in 2016, he took the unusual step of challenging their right to do so. Normally, such challenges are made against the estates of...
Thinking of Dispensing With Legal Advice on a House Sale? Think Again! Home-made contracts, particularly for the sale of land, are a singularly bad idea and can lead to costs that dwarf the modest sums needed to secure proper professional advice. Exactly that happened in one case in which a house purchase contract was so...
Procedural Unfairness Stops Council Care Action When the mother of a teenage daughter who had been taken into care in 2016 with her agreement had another child, the local council's social services department became involved. The woman's daughter had been removed from home as a result of her mother's...
Bank Fined for Failure to Distribute Assets to Beneficiaries Recently, Santander was fined more than £30 million for failing to distribute more than £180 million held in deceased customers' accounts to their personal representatives or entitled beneficiaries. More than 40,000 account holders were involved...
Ignorance Not a Reasonable Excuse for Tax Disclosure Failure When an 18-year-old woman bought a derelict end terrace property in London in 2006 and sold it to developers the following year, she made no entry on her tax return, believing that principal private residence relief applied. Having made a 'discovery' of the...
Court Visit Required to Give Clarity to Will Many wills contain clauses which alter the distribution of assets in the event of changing circumstances, such as the death of one of the beneficiaries under the will before the person making it. When drafting such clauses, it is essential that they are...
Fraud Victim Sacrificed His Home by Delay in Seeking Legal Advice If you have a legitimate legal complaint, any delay in consulting a solicitor is highly likely to benefit the wrongdoer. A man whose home was taken from him by fraud, but who delayed over 20 years before taking legal action, found that out to his cost. The...
UK Fairness Test Mitigates Italian Pre-Nuptial Agreement The law relating to the division of family assets on divorce varies widely across the world and the UK is generally regarded as one of the fairer jurisdictions for such financial arrangements in that the assets tend to be divided more equally than in many...
What is the Tax Status of Compensation for Financial Product Mis-Selling? Is compensation paid to individuals whose businesses have failed due to mis-selling of financial products subject to Income Tax? In a decision that will disappoint many victims of bank wrongdoing, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) has answered that question in...
Transfer of Pension Fund Does Not Escape IHT Charge Inheritance Tax (IHT) is not only payable on the value of the estate of a deceased person, but can also be levied on 'transfers of value' from the deceased's estate in the seven (exceptionally 14) years prior to their death. But what counts as a transfer of...
Hedge Cutting Proves Costly You might think that where the boundaries of property lie should be clear, but boundary disputes are a fruitful source of argument in the courts. A recent case arose when, between contracts being exchanged on a property and the completion of its purchase, a...
Wronged by a State Authority? It is a mark of a civilised society that anyone who suffers a wrong at the hands of state authorities is entitled to compensation. In a case on point, a prisoner whose release was considerably delayed when the Parole Board was stricken by staff shortages ...
Boys & Maughan University of Kent Law School Civil Advocacy Competition Matthew Champ , a non-practising barrister and Chartered Litigator and Advocate at Boys & Maughan, organises the Civil Advocacy competition which started in November 2017. Ebun Adeniran won the inaugural Boys & Maughan Solicitors Civil...
Misled Mother to Lose Home It may sound overcautious to say so, but it is always worth taking legal advice before entering into any significant arrangement, even when it is with a trusted member of the family. Failing to do so has proved to be an expensive lesson for a woman who has...
CGT Net Tightens for Homeowners The recent Budget contained an announcement that will be unwelcome news for some property owners. The sale of a person's principal private residence has always received favourable treatment for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) purposes. Normally such sales are...
Probate Charges to be Increased for Larger Estates Proposals to link the cost of being granted probate over an estate valued at more than £5,000 (currently fixed at £215 for those applying individually or £155 if applying through a solicitor) to the value of the estate were announced in...
Leasehold Reform Consultation Ends The leasehold system in the UK has been crying out for reform for years, and the Government has decided to tackle the issues through the medium of a new consultation paper called 'Fixing our broken housing market'. The chief target for the Government has...
International Litigation Poses Challenges That Make Legal Advice Essential Modern litigation spans the globe and issues concerning cross-border service of documents and jurisdiction often raise difficulties that make specialist legal advice essential. That was certainly so in a High Court privacy case with a strong international...
If HMRC Don't Get it Right You may be forgiven for thinking that the authorities always follow proper procedures, but that is not the case, and when they fail, their actions may not be legally valid. In a recent case, a series of errors put a taxpayer and HM Revenue and Customs...
Recalcitrant Husband Banned From Paying His Lawyers Until Arrears Cleared It is commonplace for one spouse to control the family finances and, while relations are amicable, this usually causes few issues. However, if the relationship falls apart and separation or divorce is in train, this is often no longer the case. When a...
Lack of Will Leads to Family Dispute in Court When a man's first wife died, he inherited her share of the property they had owned jointly. At the time, he was living with his third wife, and the couple remained together for a further 28 years until his death in 1990. He died without making a will and...
The Sky Above and the Earth Below A recent case may raise alarm bells for anyone thinking about adding a basement to a property which is divided. It involved a terraced house which was converted into two flats. The top two floors of the property were owned by the freeholder. The owner of...
Ombudsman Acts Against Slipshod Council When people need to go into care, the local councils that end up supporting the care costs are well known for their doggedness in attempting to ensure that the person being cared for supplies as much of the funding as possible. This will often involve a...
Relief for Families as Missing Persons Act to Come Into Force Legislation that will give families of people who go missing the ability to administer their affairs is to come into effect: but not until July 2019. The Bill received the Royal Assent as long ago as April 2017, but the need for secondary regulations and...
Vaccinations Protect Child's Welfare There has been a massive amount of disinformation put about over the years (and, apparently, recently promoted by the Russian security services) regarding the effects of various vaccinations on children. One result is that some parents are deeply wary of...
Leaving Your ISA to Your Family Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) have many advantages over normal savings accounts – chiefly that the investment income earned on them is tax free and gains within them are not subject to Capital Gains Tax. They are, not surprisingly, widely regarded...
Your Home May Be Your Castle But Planning Rules Must Be Obeyed The widespread belief that 'an Englishman's home is his castle' can all too easily lead the unwary into breaching planning rules. That was certainly so in a case concerning a householder who found herself in serious trouble after splitting her home into...
Capital and Income Losses Mean Different Things for Tax When an investment is made in a capital asset that subsequently becomes valueless, the loss can normally be used to reduce future liabilities to Capital Gains Tax when a capital asset is sold at a profit. There are also rules which permit trading expenses...
Child Contact Disputes Can Be Defused by Mediation - But Take Advice Soon If parents engaged in child contact disputes take up entrenched positions, it is very nearly always the child that suffers most. Such disputes can often be defused by taking legal advice at an early stage in order to promote dialogue and an amicable...
Timeshare Credit Agreements Worth £47 Million May Be Unenforceable Lending money to the public is, for obvious reasons, a heavily regulated activity and, as a case concerning timeshare properties showed , any involvement by those who are not authorised to carry out such activity can render credit agreements entirely...
Keep Your Records Safe The High Court of Justice is a very expensive place to resolve a family dispute, as is evidenced by a recent case which pitted members of a farming family against each other : it shows beyond doubt the importance of documenting decisions and retaining the...
Credibility of Witness Defeats Adverse Possession Claim The law allows people who occupy land over a long period and use it as their own, without anyone else asserting ownership rights to it, to apply to have their title to it registered at the Land Registry. This is normally called 'squatter's rights' and...
Don't Be Caught in a Pension Scam Scams of all shapes and sizes are becoming depressingly frequent and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned against the rising tide of pensions scams that leave people facing years of misery in retirement as a result of passing their pension funds...
Wife Must Pay for Her Own Mistakes The Supreme Court recently decided a case which made clear some of the limits that apply when financial issues were resolved within a consent order at the time of a divorce but where circumstances have changed over time and one spouse seeks to have the...
Boys & Maughan highlighted amongst the South East's top commercial property and family lawyers Our family law and commercial property solicitors have once again been praised for their consistently high levels of service in legal industry bible The Legal 500. Boys & Maughan's specialists appear in the rankings as amongst the best...
Court Accepts £6 Million Distribution to Attorney When a person's affairs are being managed by someone else under a lasting power of attorney (LPA), there are strict rules about what the attorney can and cannot do with the assets placed under their control. The attorney is expected to safeguard the assets...
Care Not a Deprivation of Liberty Care orders for children that result in them being taken away from their parents are not made lightly. When a 14-year-old girl was assessed as having 'a range of complex therapeutic needs' that made constant supervision and care essential, the decision was...
Grand Design Couple Triumph in Capital Gains Tax Test Case Those who make a profit on the sale of their principal private residence do not have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on it. However, as a test case concerning a couple who built their own home showed, that apparently simple statement disguises a hinterland of...
Long-Term Partner Wins Right to Stay in House Those who doubt the legal advantages of getting married should take note of a case in which an elderly man was left facing homelessness after his partner's unexpected death and had to go to court to seek reasonable provision from her estate. The unmarried...
Residents' Association Pays Price for Failing to Take Professional Advice Many blocks of flats are managed by a residents' association, which has the great advantage of affording tenants democratic rights of self-determination. However, as a decision of the Upper Tribunal (UT) showed, such bodies bear onerous, and often complex,...
Law Overrides Will That Excludes Partner The law that allows someone who was dependent on a deceased person during their lifetime to make a claim against their estate if there is no, or inadequate, provision for them in the will is one of long standing (the Inheritance (Provision for Family and...
Court Agrees to Correct Trust Error We all make mistakes…and when a contract is set up the terms of which clearly do not reflect what was intended, the court can be asked to rectify it. A recent case shows that that approach can also be taken with regard to incorrectly drafted trust...
Supreme Court Says No to Divorce Based on Weak Unreasonable Behaviour Claim The Supreme Court judges' decision to prevent a wife from divorcing her husband , which was made 'without enthusiasm', is expected to lead to calls for a rapid change in the law. The case arose after a wife's application for a divorce was opposed by her...
Time to Review Your Discretionary Trust? When the Finance Act 2006 came into force, it introduced a ten-year charge on discretionary trusts containing 'relevant property'. Most discretionary trusts that were started after 21 March 2006, other than those covered by specific exemptions, will carry...
Boys & Maughan wins five trophies at the top national conveyancing awards for the second year running Thanet and Canterbury solicitors Boys & Maughan won no fewer than five trophies at the ESTAS Conveyancing Awards on Friday 19 October 2018. Presented by TV property expert Phil Spencer at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, Boys & Maughan won:...
Building Works Next Door Making Your Life a Misery? Construction works on neighbouring properties can make your life a misery but, with the right legal advice, you may be able to do something about them. In a case on point, the High Court came to the aid of a woman whose rental property was deprived of light...
Deliberate Mistruths in Estate Administration Mean Court Hearing When an estate is to be administered, an application for probate must first be made if the deceased left a will. Once probate is granted, the process can begin. However, the mere granting of probate does not mean that all is said and done on the matter, as a...
Switzerland, Not London, the Right Venue for Big Money Divorce The perceived generosity of English judges in big money divorce cases has made the UK the venue of choice for some – but anathema for others. However, as one case showed, judicial priorities have more to do with fairness than finance. The case...
Supreme Court Rules in 'Gay Cake' Case In a unanimous judgment, the Supreme Court has ruled that a bakery in Northern Ireland's refusal to make a cake bearing a slogan in support of same-sex marriage was not discriminatory. The legal battle began four years ago after Ashers bakery, a family-run...
Pension Pot Holders Fail to Take Advice If you are approaching pension age, unless you are one of the increasingly few with a salary-related pension scheme, you would be wise to take professional advice before you take any irrevocable action. The decisions taken at certain points in managing your...
Motive Not Sufficient Reason to Deny Subject Access Request One of the dilemmas the courts face from time to time is how to achieve the right balance between individual privacy and the public's right to know about things. In a recent case , a patient who had made a complaint against a GP sought publication of the...
Failure to Control Knotweed Proves Costly for Landowner Japanese knotweed is a very considerable pest – 'indisputably the UK's most aggressive, destructive and invasive plant', according to the Environment Agency –as it can cause damage to buildings, spreads easily and is difficult to eradicate. As...
Can a Will Be Valid if You Can't Read it? One of the requirements for a will to be accepted as valid is that the person who makes it must have 'knowledge and approval' of its contents...in other words, they must understand what the will says and what it means in practice. It might seem, therefore,...
Get an Agreement - Especially Where Family Members Are Involved! It is normal for money, often considerable sums, to pass between family members. However, when this is done without legal advice, it is only too common for disputes to arise as to whether or not the sums concerned were meant as gifts. Disputes between family...
HMRC Stick to Limited Period for CGT Payment on Residential Property Gains Despite strong representations from the professional community, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have decided that they will stick with a 30-day initial payment requirement for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on residential property gains for disposals after April...
Good News for Airline Passengers as 'In Writing' Clause Overcome Almost everyone who has flown much has a story (or more than one) about lost or damaged luggage, and holiday insurance claims regarding these are commonplace. A Finnish man who took a holiday to Malaga found that some items went missing from his luggage on...
Inconsistent Residential Planning Permission Overturned If you are faced with an unwelcome proposal for development nearby, a recent case shows how tenaciousness and a knowledge of past planning history can help to prevent it. Consistency of decision making is a fundamental principle of planning law and local...
Wife Seeking Divorce Fails to Prove English Domicile London has gained a reputation as 'the divorce capital of the world' because settlements reached are, by international standards, very generous towards women. It is no surprise, therefore, that the courts in this country are a very popular choice of venue...
Boys & Maughan makes the ESTAS shortlist for third consecutive year We are delighted to announce that we have once again been recognised for our outstanding customer service to clients by the largest award scheme in the UK residential property industry. The ESTAS Group, which highlights the best firms for customer...
Attorney Pays for Lack of Attention If you accept appointment under a power of attorney, it is essential to understand the responsibilities this entails. A recent case shows what can happen if a less than thorough approach is taken. It dealt with arrangements made by a 95-year-old widower...
New Guidance on Care Home Charges After Death It is a stressful and unhappy enough time when a loved one dies, but the anguish of those mourning the loss can be compounded when there are complications over payments to care homes which seem excessive. Recently, the Competition and Markets Authority...
Planning Application Restricted to Preserve View On our densely populated island, there is a pressing need for available land to be put to sensible use and, where restrictive covenants lurking in title deeds prevent that happening, they can be modified. In a case on point, a man's desire to provide a...
Unmarried Partners and Widowed Parent's Allowance - Supreme Court Rules A decision of the Supreme Court announced today has important implications for unmarried partners of people who have died. The case involved a woman from Northern Ireland who was denied Widowed Parent's Allowance (WPA) after her partner of 23 years passed...
Financial Claim Based on Support After Divorce Fails The usual course of events on divorce is that there is a financial settlement which divides up the family assets as they are at that point in time. This takes into account the expected future income and need for income of the couple who have split up, based...
Landowners' Duties and Highway Visibility - Court of Appeal Test Case If landowners allow vegetation to grow so that it affects visibility on adjacent highways, should they be held liable if accidents occur? In a decision that broke new legal ground, the Court of Appeal has answered that question with a resounding 'no' . The...
Farmer Acts to Protect Family Promise Farming families appear regularly in the courts these days, as more and more cases arise that feature undocumented promises that have been made (or are alleged to have been made) by parents but not kept. The law will only enforce such informal arrangements...
Tenants Must Bear Cost of Safety Improvements Following the Grenfell disaster in 2017, cladding has come under close scrutiny with surveys being carried out as a priority in buildings across the UK. The failure to comply with Building Regulations (Part L1A 2010), which provides a framework for ensuring...
Possible Separation From Mother Intolerable, Rules Court Relationships that start on the Internet are already leading to some interesting situations. A recent family case involved a British woman who had met a Pakistani man online and married him in the USA, where the couple had two children. Her husband had...
Hacking Episode a 'Reasonable Excuse' for Late Filing of Tax Returns Taxpayers are personally responsible for filing their tax returns on time, and failing to do so can lead to stiff financial penalties. However, in one case, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) ruled that a self-employed website developer whose accountants lost all...
Money in a Bank Account Is Not Property - Guideline Court of Appeal Ruling Money in a bank account represents the debt due from the bank to the account holder and is not 'property' in the eyes of the law. The Court of Appeal made that point in quashing the convictions of a woman who was accused of abusing her position as a senior...
Disappointed Children Fail to Overturn Will When a will is made late in life which materially changes how an estate is to be distributed (especially when the new will favours one of a number of children), a dispute following the death is almost inevitable. So it was when an 85-year-old woman made a...
Pre-Nup Upheld When Implications Understood Family judges will approach pre-nuptial agreements with greater respect following a landmark Court of Appeal ruling in a 'big money' divorce case . The Court agreed with Lord Phillips' opinion in Radmacher v Granatino that failing to honour such...
What Seems Reasonable to You... It is a common term in a lease for the tenants to have to seek permission from the landlord if they want to do something new to or with the premises they let. Typically, such clauses specify that permission will not be 'unreasonably withheld'. However, what...
A Little Too Much Knowledge Can Be a Dangerous Thing There are special rules for people working in the UK on short-term secondment from employers based abroad. Many do not become taxpayers under the UK tax system. When one such person contacted HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to clarify his position, he was...
Unnecessary Risk-Taking Means Tour Operator Not Liable for Accident With the holiday season upon us, a recent case shows that there are limits to the liability of tour operators when accidents occur, especially when they are the result of rash behaviour. The case involved a man who fell from the balcony of his hotel in...
Witnesses Save the Day for Widow in Will Argument A divorced man who remarried in his late 50s made a new will in 1998, one year after the marriage, which left his entire estate to his new wife. After he died, a home-made will was discovered, made shortly before his death. This left virtually his entire...
Jail for Husband Who Flouted Court Ruling Court orders have to be obeyed and those who defy them can ultimately be sent to prison. Exactly that happened in one 'big money' divorce case in which an 83-year-old businessman repeatedly tried to thwart his ex-wife. Following the end of the former...
Inheritance Tax - 'Hope Value' Relevant to Property Valuations When valuing a property for Inheritance Tax (IHT) purposes, is it legitimate to take into account its potential for enlargement or improvement – so-called 'hope value'? In a guideline ruling, the Upper Tribunal (UT) has answered that question in the...
Siblings Pay High Price for Dishonest Assistance to Bankrupt Brother If family members or friends are facing bankruptcy, it may be tempting to assist them in keeping their assets away from the clutches of creditors. The folly of such conduct was, however, strikingly revealed by a Court of Appeal case concerning a family...
Will Wishes Rescinded by Court One powerful reason why you should always seek legal advice before making your will is to ensure you meet your responsibilities to those who depend on you financially. In one case on point, the High Court effectively rewrote the will of a wealthy landowner ...
Future Earning Capacity Not a Matrimonial Asset The Court of Appeal has made an important decision in a divorce case in which the main argument was over the availability of future income to fund maintenance payments in divorce settlements. The couple involved are both accountants and the husband is at...
Council Tax to Bite on Empty Property In 2017, 205,293 dwellings in England were left empty for six months or more. With the housing shortage never far from the news agenda, steps to bring unoccupied houses back into use are being taken by the Government. Under the Rating (Property in Common...
Confidentiality - Don't Give In to Threats If you are facing menacing demands for money, you should take legal advice straight away. In a recent case, the High Court came to the aid of a wealthy married businessman who claimed to have been subjected to blackmail following a brief affair with a work...
Under Financial Pressure? Don't Fall Into Dodgy Lenders' Arms! Financial pressure can easily lead the unwary into the arms of unscrupulous lenders. One High Court case, in which numerous borrowers found themselves in legal limbo , shows how unwise it is to enter into such transactions without professional advice. A...
Trust Variation for Minors - High Court Holds Sway Setting up family trusts with minors or those with mental incapacities as beneficiaries is by no means uncommon and it sometimes occurs that such trusts need to be varied for one reason or another. The mechanism for this is the Variation of Trusts Act 1958...
Pre-Nuptial Agreement Receives Court Backing The validity of pre-nuptial agreements depends on legal advice being taken on both sides, equal bargaining positions and overall fairness. In one case, the High Court found that a wife in a big money divorce case was bound by such an agreement and awarded...
Harassment Order Given Against Unknown Abuser Harassment is very unpleasant and, when a person is subject to a campaign of abuse, it can prove extremely upsetting. Furthermore, it is often quite possible for the abuser to preserve their anonymity. In such circumstances, it might seem that there is...
Be Careful Who You Trust With Your Finances Giving someone else power of attorney over your finances can be a useful means of ensuring that your affairs will be properly managed if you lose the capacity to do so yourself. However, one case in which a war veteran's money was plundered by a man he...
Understanding Between Couple Regarding Work Done Creates Legal Obligation Legal arguments between cohabitants who break up are commonplace. However, a recent case dealt with a lengthy legal dispute between the surviving partner of a gay couple and his deceased partner's family. The couple lived in a property that was owned by...
Changing Circumstances Lead to Divorce Settlement Dispute When a wealthy construction business owner and his wife divorced in 2011, a 'clean break' agreement was made to include the sale of the two properties they owned – the family home in the UK and one in Spain. In the event that neither had been sold, the...
Working From Home? Do You Have the Right? Although they may not know it, many householders are banned by restrictions in their title deeds from using their properties for commercial purposes. Recently, a man who converted his garage into a dog grooming parlour discovered why he should have sought...
Email Address Not Enough for Serving Claim You may think that because a firm has an email address, you can serve a writ or other legal document on them by sending it via email…and so you can, but not unless the firm has agreed to that. It took a visit to the Supreme Court to resolve the...
High Street Store Will Invalid, Rules Court The dangers inherent in adopting a casual approach to one's will were starkly illustrated in a case that considered the validity of three 'templated' wills written by an elderly woman within a period of four years. The woman had three children and two...
Judge Criticises Council and DWP for Usurping Attorney's Powers When a person is not capable of looking after themselves, the Secretary of State has the power to appoint someone else to do so. A recent court case shows that failing to do so in a balanced way can have adverse consequences and saw a judge condemn the...
Supreme Court Supports Mother Who Changed Mind Over Return to Australia Divorces where there is an international dimension often present specific issues, and a recent case involving a couple who had been living in Australia before they separated is no exception, leading ultimately to a hearing in the Supreme Court . The...
What is a divorce strategist? You might have heard of Suzy Miller. Suzy describes herself as the UK’s unique ‘Alternative Divorce Guide’, A Divorce Strategist, Public Speaker and Trainer. She has featured on Radio 4 Women’s Hour, in the Daily Mail and...
Flats Development 'No Pets' Policy Passes High Court Test If your tenancy agreement contains a 'no pets' policy, the fact that your pet does not cause any issues for other tenants will not prevent your landlord from enforcing its removal. In a recent case, the High Court ruled that a couple had been lawfully...
Failure to Take Advice Stops Legal Action Cold Litigating without using a qualified solicitor to assist you is strictly for the foolhardy. The point could hardly have been more clearly made than by a case in which a man who wished to have his criminal record erased from the Internet sued the wrong...
Psychiatrist Approves Marriage for Alzheimer's Patient Remarriages are a common source of disagreement and acrimony among family members and dementia is an increasingly prevalent issue, so it is unsurprising that when both were present, the result was a legal dispute in which the Court of Protection had to...
Who Owns the Balance on the Joint Account? Sometimes, what seem to be quite simple questions have to be decided in court. In a recent case, the issue was who owned the money in a joint bank account when one of the account holders died. Simple question or not, it was argued all the way to the Court...
Everyone Has a Right to Know Who Their Parents Are - DNA Test Case In a ground-breaking decision that prioritised the rights of the living over those of the dead, the Court of Appeal has opened the way for genetic testing of DNA extracted from a sample taken from a cancer victim before his death in order to clarify the...
Planning Law - Take Advice Before You Act The planning system is very far from straightforward and sensible landowners seek legal advice before tackling it. The point was underlined by one case in which a farmer ended up with a part-built barn and at risk of enforcement action if he completed the...
Government to Review Law to Wipe Out Trolling The finding that more than a third of users of the Internet in the UK have been 'trolled' or been the subject of harassment or 'cyber-bullying', sometimes with severe effects on those singled out for online abuse, has led the Government to commission an...
High Court Focuses on Essentials to Resolve Family Trust Dispute Even the most careful drafting cannot always succeed in dispelling ambiguity or in making provision for all future eventualities. As a High Court case concerning a family trust showed, however, the courts are always there to act as a neutral umpire in...
Reliance on Accountant Shows Reasonable Care If you rely on your accountant's advice regarding a tax issue, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will now regard you as having taken 'reasonable care' to get things right and will not impose a penalty. On 14 February, HMRC issued new guidance relating to the...
Premature Contract Signature Proves Expensive Signing a contract before you are sure you are willing to complete it can be a huge mistake: judges do not flinch from enforcing valid contracts, as a recent case shows . It involved a man who reneged on a deal to buy a family home for £5 million. He...
Direct Contact With Both Parents Best Promotes Child Welfare Family judges know that children normally do best when they have direct contact with both parents. The Court of Appeal underlined that point in a case concerning five ultra-Orthodox Jewish children whose transgender father had been ostracised by the close...
Victim of Hotel Jewellery Theft Wins Substantial Compensation Thefts from hotel rooms are thankfully not an everyday occurrence, but when such a crime is committed, who, if anyone, is liable to pay compensation can become an issue, especially as the perpetrators, even if caught, frequently turn out to be penniless. In...
Mistaken Belief Overturns Estate Split Agreement When the male partner of a cohabiting couple died, apparently without leaving a will, after they had lived together for more than 40 years, his estate was administered according to the laws of intestacy, with the result that no provision was made for his...
Non-Residents Beware - Ignorance of UK Tax Law is No Excuse About 900,000 UK citizens are long-term residents abroad, and it is no particular surprise that they may be less careful about managing their UK tax affairs than those who live in the UK. Many foreign residents retain UK properties, and when these are sold a...
No Pay, No Passport? In a consultation paper published just before the December holiday season , the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which is the Government department that deals with child maintenance payment arrangements, outlined significant powers that would enable...
DIY Approach to Property Purchase Proves Costly You might think that something as seemingly simple as buying a pitch for a caravan is straightforward enough to do yourself, but a recent example shows why no sensible person would consider entering into a property transaction without employing a specialist...
Air Travel Woes May Lead to Compensation After a ghastly year for flight delays, with British Airways suffering two major IT failures, Ryanair's problems with aircrew rotas and air traffic control disputes, a recent report reveals that nearly £400 million in claims could have been made for...
Reasonable Provision May Not Mean What You Think When a person is excluded from the will of someone on whom they were 'dependent', the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 provides that the dependent person can apply for 'reasonable financial provision' to be made for their...
What Do Points Make? Tax Penalties The automatic penalties attaching to late filing of tax returns have long been an unpopular issue for taxpayers. The system involves fixed penalties for missing deadlines and these are rigorously applied. Filing a tax return online just seconds after the...
Trust is No Replacement for Legal Advice Sadly, not all relationships that get off to a good start last, and it is vital to seek legal advice before entering into any financial arrangements, even with those who are closest to you. That point was clearly made by a case in which a woman attempted to...