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A property developer has been told he must honour an oral agreement to sell some land to former friends despite falling out with them during the course of the transaction. The case involved a developer who agreed in 2003 to sell a building plot and a meadow to some family friends for £200,000. The plot
The directors of 11 different companies across the UK have been disqualified after employing illegal workers. The disqualifications all follow investigations by the Insolvency Service. The businesses include four restaurants, three butchers, a café, a clothing manufacturer and a petrol station. The 11 directors have each been banned from being company directors or being involved
The very same commercial lease can be both a godsend or a noose depending on the terms struck between the parties at the outset. Will it provide a good foundation with which to give the business the opportunity to prosper or will it be a drain on profit with expenditure taking away any likelihood of
Being an entrepreneur is risky business, with start-ups in particular usually adopting a “learning by doing” approach. Experience is hard earned, with success or failure requiring a measure of luck as well as business nous, especially in those early days. Thankfully, as access to information became as easy as a click of a button, business
The decision to leave the EU has already hurt business finances and will quickly lead to a rise in corporate insolvencies, according to a survey of its members by the insolvency and restructuring trade body, R3. Its figures show that 72% of respondents believe the referendum result will cause corporate insolvency numbers to rise by
Directors are being urged by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to make sure their company practices comply with the law. Failure to do so could result in penalties and disqualification. The CMA has provided the following check list: Why should directors help companies avoid breaking competition law? Company directors have a special responsibility to
The government has announced plans to provide £7 billion to expand its affordable housing programme. Housing providers can now apply for a share of the fund, which was allocated an additional £1.4 billion in the Autumn Statement, to deliver 40,000 new affordable houses across the country. Alongside this extra funding, the government is expanding the
A judge was justified in committing a husband to prison for six weeks for breaching the child maintenance requirements set out in a divorce settlement. That was the decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of a couple who had divorced in 2013. The consent order provided for the couple’s properties in Monaco
A husband who failed to disclose all his assets when negotiating a divorce settlement has been ordered to pay his wife an extra £1.6m. The couple were both teachers when they married in 1984. The husband began a business in 1988. He owned 99 of the 100 shares and his wife had the other one.
There is often confusion between the rights and responsibilities afforded to married couples as opposed to unmarried couples, with many unmarried couples still believing in the myth of the “common law spouse” and the misapprehension that they have the same rights as a spouse. One of the differences between married and unmarried couples is in