Homeowners buying a property under Help to Buy are now allowed to take out 35-year mortgages. The government has moved to close what it describes as a loophole, which has seen purchasers using the scheme facing difficulties and uncertainty if they wanted to take out a mortgage with a term of more than 25 years.
A man has reduced his periodical payments to his ex-wife after he argued that his business income was not a matrimonial asset. The couple married in 1988 and had four children who are all now adults. The family had a good standard of living thanks to the husband’s successful business. After they divorced it was
A mother has lost her appeal against a special guardianship order which placed her children in the care of their paternal grandparents. The case involved children who had been the subject of a child protection plan due to parental neglect. A residency order was made and the children lived with their parental grandparents. The mother
A mother has successfully challenged a decision to place her baby up for adoption, because the judge dealing with the case didn’t take the necessary time and care. The case involved a mother who gave birth to her baby at the age of 16. The local authority accommodated them in a mother and baby placement
Where commercial tenants have stopped paying rent, landlords may be able to forfeit the lease which has the effect of bringing the lease to an end. The first stage for any commercial landlord considering forfeiture for non-payment of rent is to check that there is a right to forfeit in the lease. Any well drafted
The hot summer months lead to a large rise in neighbour disputes compared to other parts of the year. Most of the disputes are over such things as noise, bad parking and overhanging trees or hedges. These issues can simmer throughout the year but tend to come to a head during the summer when the
It is now widely accepted across the legal profession that businesses could save thousands of pounds if they used mediation as a way of settling disputes with employees and other companies. Mediation allows disputing parties to settle their disagreements with the help of a trained mediator at a fraction of the cost of going to
The Tenant Fees Act 2019 came into force on 1st June 2019 and provided more rules regulating tenancy deposits. The new rules undoubtedly provide a new hurdle for landlords, but it’s important that landlords continue to work to get the basics right. We have found that despite it being many years since the law changed
The government has launched a consultation on how to ensure greater equality in parental leave entitlements. The consultation will ask whether statutory paternity leave for fathers and same sex partners should be changed, and for suggestions on ways in which the shared parental leave policy introduced in 2015 could be improved. The government is looking
A woman has been committed to prison following a dispute with her brother over their late father’s estate. The court heard that neither of the siblings had been named as executor of their father’s will but the sister had taken the role without authority to do so. The brother applied to have the sister removed