When a woman updated her will in 2003, she had no way of knowing that a simple change to a precedent document could cause problems for her executors several years later. There was no intention to change one of the main provisions of the will, which was that...

When a property is owned by two people as joint tenants (where the title to the property is owned by each of them, so that if one dies, the other inherits the property by survivorship), each of them is considered to be the legal owner of the property. A man...

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has now published its response to the recent consultation on proposals to criminalise squatting. The consultation paper, entitled ‘Options for dealing with squatting’ , received over 2,000 responses. As a first...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have announced that the Mortgage Verification Scheme (MVS), which was developed in co-operation with the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Building Societies Association and run as a pilot scheme in March 2010, is now fully...

When a Jersey multi-millionaire gave most of his assets away to one of his daughters in the months prior to his death, leaving an estate of less than £100,000 to be shared by all three of his children, it was perhaps inevitable that a legal challenge...

A recent case illustrates how strong the evidence must be before the presumption that a person making a will has the mental capacity to do so will be overturned. It involved an elderly woman who died leaving an estate of a little under £150,000. Her...

When a house is bought or sold, the prospective purchaser makes what are called ‘pre-contract enquiries’ in order to establish the exact details of the property being bought. These are normally in the form of a standard set of questions with any...

It is common for service charges to be paid ‘on account’ of the annual cost, based on estimates, and a final account to be made up some time after the year end, based on the actual costs incurred. However, not all landlords are diligent about...

One of the rules that applies to the administration of estates is that whilst a person appointed as executor under a will can refuse to accept the appointment, once an executor ‘intermeddles’ in the estate, in principle he or she cannot then...

When an elderly woman passed away, her daughter, who was her personal representative, realised that some of her late mother’s land was occupied unlawfully by three people. She brought an action against them , seeking to recover possession of the land...

The UK has been proceeding apace in its attempts to develop ‘green’ energy, and wind turbines are appearing all over the country – including in such seemingly unlikely spots as beside the M25. However, no matter what their benefits as...

When a millionaire estate agent died intestate, the two women he had been involved with both tried to have his estate distributed according to their wishes. Chris John died leaving an estate worth £5 million. At the time of his death, he had been...

When does a commercial property become vacant under a lease agreement? This was the question considered in a recent hearing in the Court of Appeal . The appeal was brought by haulage and storage firm NYK Logistics (UK) Ltd., a former tenant of Netherlands...

The recent case in which the court was asked to rule regarding a vacant flat that was part of a property sold at auction – the existence of which neither the vendor nor the purchaser was aware of until after the sale – has now been heard by the...

A widow who was excluded from inheriting her husband’s £500,000 estate, under the terms of a will he made four years before he died in 2009, has contested the will, alleging that the brain tumour from which her husband was suffering meant that he...

A developer who completely demolished a property when he only had permission to demolish part of it has landed himself with a fine and legal costs totalling more than £120,000. The developer has been given a year to pay the £80,000 fine and the...

Years ago, it was common for a deed creating a trust for children to specify the beneficiaries as being ‘the legitimate children’ of the person setting up the trust. Recently, the children of the 13th Duke of Manchester, by his bigamous marriage...

On 1 October 2011, changes to the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (normally called the Construction Act) came into force. The changes are contained in Part 8 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 ...

The combination of a deathbed marriage, a millionaire and a new will was always likely to end in a court battle, and so it proved recently when a family challenged their late father’s will, which left everything to his new wife, who had been his...

The Law Society is urging the nearly 70 per cent of the adult population who have not yet made a will to do so. There are many reasons why you should make a will. It is a mistake to think that it is only necessary if you have a substantial estate. Estate...

Noisy neighbours can be the bane of one’s existence, so it is no real surprise that a lesbian couple finally lost patience with their adjoining next-door neighbours after they had workmen carrying out extensive building work on their property for a...

Among the requirements for a will to be valid are that it must not be witnessed by a beneficiary and it must be signed at the bottom by the testator (the person making it) or, if they are unable to sign it, under their direction. You would therefore be...

When a licensing application cannot be heard because insufficient information has been supplied relating to the primary use of the premises, the licensing authority must decide whether to grant the licence and deal with any issues through enforcement action...

Before you purchase a property, it is wise to make sure you are aware of the implications of any permitted uses of the land surrounding it. A recent case, in which the courts declined to prevent a landowner from carrying out activities which, although they...

According to a recent poll, more than one in eight wills is ‘self-written’ and one in 10 of those people who have made a will fails to tell anyone where it is. Since nearly 4 out of every 10 adults have not made a will in the first place, the...

If a claim is not defended, is a person indemnifying the defendant required to meet the claim in full? This question was at the core of a recent legal case involving a property development. The developer contracted with a subcontractor to carry out...

A recent case illustrates the importance for cohabiting couples of giving careful consideration to property ownership and inheritance issues. Ms Cattle had a relationship with her partner, Mr Evans, for many years and when he died she made a claim against...

A recent case illustrates that, when mistakes occur, it may not always be possible to put them right. A buyer and seller exchanged contracts on a flat, which was being sold by way of a long lease. This seems straightforward enough, but when the plans were...

Building contracts often involve a multiplicity of documents, which sometimes have conflicting terms. In such cases, the liabilities under the contracts will depend on which of the various contractual terms has primacy over the others. In a recent...

It may be tempting (but is probably just tempting fate) to put a ‘qualification’ clause in a will whereby a person inherits only if they do something or refrain from doing something. Where it is something definite which can be unequivocally...

The general principle that ‘the loser pays the costs of the winner’ does not apply to disputes brought before the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT). The maximum amount the LVT can require the loser to pay is £500, and only then in...

When a beneficiary loses out because the terms of the will of a wealthy person are changed shortly before that person’s death, a dispute is always likely. When a Scottish woman with an estate valued at £4 million died shortly after changing her...

New developments require planning permission, as is well known, and so do projects that affect the environment. But can demolition of an existing building be considered to be a project affecting the environment, thus meaning planning permission is required? ...

A fence put up by a Devon couple will cost them more than £20,000 in legal fees and re-erection costs after the court decided that it was built a few inches the wrong side of their boundary with their next-door neighbours. The court case was necessary...

When a document contains errors, the court will often act to ensure that commercial common sense dictates its interpretation. In a recent case, a farmer sought to avoid an estate rentcharge for roads and sewers on the farm estate when the covenants in the...

A recent case will cause concern to anyone who has a specific wish that their estate should not pass to certain people. It involved a woman who left an estate of more than £400,000, which she had bequeathed to various animal charities. The woman had a...

Conveyancing is often thought to be a straightforward process, but the truth is very different. Problems with potential fraud, claims by lenders and title disputes are not infrequent. In order to protect consumers, the Law Society launched, in January 2011,...

From 6 April 2011, the Competition Act 1998 has been extended to cover agreements made with regard to land. Such agreements were previously excluded from the scope of the Act. The Act seeks to prohibit agreements etc. that prevent, restrict or distort...

A very unusual case illustrates the lengths to which the courts may go in order to sort out disputes involving lost wills. It involved a couple who had both been married before and who, it was claimed, had made mutual wills. On the husband’s death,...

A landlord’s attempt to obtain a rent based on the uplifted value of a property was rebuffed by the court because a term in the lease, which was worded in such a way that the rent set by the rent reviews would not take into account improvements made...

The Government has suggested that councils in rural areas consider changing their planning policies to allow unused farm buildings to be converted to use for residential purposes, rather than insisting that they only be used as farm buildings. This idea is...

An unusual instance of the creation of a statutory will was reported recently, when an application for a statutory will was granted to the daughter of a woman who had suffered a stroke. The applicant’s two half-siblings were found to have forged an...

An attempt by campaigners to prevent the demolition of a neo-Georgian building by creating a conservation area was recently defeated , following a challenge by the property company that wished to develop the site. The council failed to prevent the...

A tenant that served a break notice on its lease to the wrong person had a lucky escape recently when the court ruled that the notice was valid because the landlord’s agent had accepted it and this had the effect of waiving the defects in serving it....

A woman whose mother left an entire estate to charity has won her appeal for a substantial payment from the estate, sufficient to meet her need for reasonable maintenance. Melita Jackson died in July 2004 at the age of 70, leaving a net estate of some...

A recent court decision illustrates that where ownership of land changes, rights conferred by covenants over neighbouring land are not necessarily passed on to the new owners. In this case, the former owners of a house had sold part of their garden for...

Property company Daejan Investments Ltd. has failed in its bid to overturn Tribunal decisions concerning repair works carried out at the company’s Queens Mansions property in Muswell Hill, London. The recent Court of Appeal ruling will cost Daejan...

A man who was appointed under a power of attorney to look after a woman’s affairs, when she could no longer manage to do so herself, has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after he abused his position of trust to steal more than £100,000 from...

When the terms of a house building contract exclude any liability for losses incurred by the client on account of defective works, the client has no redress under a general duty of care. This was the decision of the Court of Appeal in a recent case...

Who has the right to the airspace above a flat? This question was at the centre of a recent legal dispute involving a block of flats. The block of flats was wider at the bottom than on the upper floors, narrowing at the 6th. The 6th floor tenant obtained...

When an obvious error is made, the courts will sometimes be willing to correct the mistake – but not always. In a recent case , the court was asked to consider wills executed by an elderly couple. Each will was a simple ‘mirror will’, in...

When a person continues to use land they do not own over a long period of time, they may acquire an easement (a legal right to use the land). Recently, the Court of Appeal considered the extent of the rights created by easements. The case arose because of...

The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) may give tenants the basis of a valid defence against a possession order sought against them. This was the ruling of the Supreme Court in a case in which a council sought to ‘demote’ the tenancy of a tenant as...

A recent case shows that the creation of a valid will in English does not depend on the person creating it being able to speak the language. The situation arose when a woman’s daughters contested her will, which left everything to her four sons,...

Provisions introduced on 6 April 2007 under the Housing Act 2004 made it a requirement that landlords protect their tenants’ deposits using an authorised Tenancy Deposit Scheme, if they have let the property on an assured shorthold tenancy. The rules...

In summer 2010, two children died after becoming trapped in electrically powered gates. The accident happened in each case because their presence at the closing edge was not detected and the closing force of the gate when they obstructed it was too great. ...

A man who built a house which appeared from the outside to be a barn has lost his battle to obtain a certificate of lawful use for the property. The man originally obtained planning permission to build a barn. He then constructed a fully-equipped...

The Law Society is campaigning to persuade the Government that a change to the law is necessary to protect members of the public from problems caused by using unqualified will writers. The Law Society wants will writers to have to gain formal qualifications...

A group of tenants who sought to acquire the freehold of the property they occupy met with failure recently , after the Court of Appeal found that the notice served on their landlord was invalid because it was not correctly signed by one of the tenants. ...

An argument over an estate worth more than £4 million has caused a family rift which looks set to run and run. The case concerned the assets of a Greek Cypriot woman, who died leaving her and her late husband’s estate largely to their daughter....

The High Court has confirmed the principle that where a lease for a dwelling is held by two tenants, either tenant can give a valid notice to terminate the tenancy. The effect of such a notice is that both tenants will be required to vacate the premises...

The High Court recently concluded that a property sale could not be subject to an agreement made two decades previously, as the circumstances of the transaction were not envisaged by the original agreement. The agreement related to a building divided into...

A case which recently came before the High Court illustrates how complicated probate issues can be, especially where the will was written in another country or involves assets abroad. The case involved an Indian man, who lived in the UK and owned several...

The Court of Appeal recently concluded that a potential property buyer was able to rescind the purchase contract owing to a defect in the title to the property concerned. The buyer had contracted to acquire the property, which was sold at auction, with...

It is a source of concern to lawyers and families alike that the majority of people never make a will. Often, the intention to do so is there, but somehow the person never seems to ‘get around to it’ and dies or becomes incapable before a will...

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that when a local authority has obtained a liability order to claim unpaid council tax and wishes to enforce it using insolvency proceedings, the authority does not have to do so within six years of the granting of the...

When the owner of a building intends to carry out work covered by the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 , the owner of an adjoining building has the right to request security from the owner planning the work where this involves a risk to their property. This is so...

When a development plan is passed which should have been subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) but was not, does the granting of a retrospective consent for EIA development have force or is the planning authority obliged to take action against...

The newspapers have recently reported several incidences of the exploitation of vulnerable elderly people. In one such case, Stevenage care worker Jo-ann Tharle has been jailed for the theft of savings of more than £10,000 from an elderly man in her...

An ongoing dispute between a pensioner and her local authority has demonstrated the importance of considering the impact of planning laws when carrying out work on listed buildings. Sheila New, 72, painted the front of her house a light blue colour in 2008....

The core provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October. The Act largely consolidates existing discrimination law, which had previously been found in a number of different pieces of legislation. One of the changes made by the Act is to...

When appointing an executor, it is vital that you make sure you choose someone who is trustworthy. Where co-executors are appointed, it is important that they will all oversee the estate administration. The wisdom of an assiduous approach when deciding who...

A dispute between neighbours over whether or not a brook marked the boundary between their properties may well be aired in the Supreme Court after the couple who lost the argument in the Court of Appeal was given permission to appeal against the decision. ...

If something was described to you as a floating structure moored in a river, you would be forgiven for assuming that what was being described was a boat – but it isn’t necessarily so, as a Norfolk couple found. Using a barge as a base, they...

The Court of Appeal has overturned a controversial High Court decision regarding a will which was unclearly worded. The deceased had left his property, valued at £169,000, to his lifelong friends. He also left a pecuniary legacy to his brother and his...

Loss of light can be a major irritation and the law provides two remedies where it occurs. The usual remedy is for the developer of the structure responsible for the loss of light to make a payment to the person whose property’s light is impaired. The...

A builder who entered the ‘buy to let’ market after acting on a negligent valuation has been awarded more than £70,000 by the court . He intended to buy a property to let it out and engaged a firm of surveyors to value the property and to...

A recent case highlights the importance of making sure that procedural issues are dealt with correctly in the giving of formal notices. When a tenant wished to terminate its lease, it served the relevant notice on the landlord. At least, that is what it...

The Court Service has revised its guidance on making an application for probate, in order to take into account the most common errors made. The guidance has been published by HM Revenue and Customs on page 6 of the June 2010 Inheritance Tax and Trusts...

Virtually all contracts contain provisions which allow the parties concerned to cancel the contract in the event that the other party breaches it. However, with many contracts being complex and imposing a variety of obligations of varying importance on the...

In a long-running case , a beneficiary under an estate administrated by his brother failed in his attempt to bring an action against two firms of solicitors which had acted for his brother in his capacity as administrator. Mark Roberts and his brother John...

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) standard agreement forms have recently been updated. The new forms replace the 2007 versions and are available from the RIBA bookshop ....

Earlier this year, YouGov carried out a poll on behalf of children’s charity Barnardo’s . The results indicate that 58 per cent of adults in the UK, and 74 per cent of those who are cohabiting, do not currently have a will in place. According...

Valuation, as any valuer will tell you, is an imprecise art. Claims against valuers for negligent valuations are therefore notoriously difficult to sustain. Recently, the court heard a claim brought by investors in hotels that a valuer had neglected to...

Sometimes, after a person's death, it turns out that their will does not have the effect that was originally anticipated. This can happen if, for example, the family circumstances have changed since the will was made. In such situations, there are a number...

A poorly-drafted plan and a refusal to compromise have led to an argument over the boundary between two rural properties reaching the Court of Appeal . The argument between the owners of adjacent land arose because there was a brook and a fence that were...

It is not often that decisions are quashed on the basis that the court in which a case was heard got the facts wrong, but a recent planning case shows that it can occur. The case concerned a planning application which related to two sides of a property....

Mental capacity has always been something of a problematic area of the law. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 was enacted to put mental capacity law on a firmer footing and is based on the concepts of ‘best interests’ and ‘capacity’....

When estate assets are not divided as potential beneficiaries think they should be, disagreements often result. When there is a second family involved, legal challenges are relatively common. In a recent case, Jean Gorjat, a multi-millionaire electronics...

A tenant wishing to vacate premises by terminating its lease should read the break clauses in the lease carefully and comply fully with them: failing to do so can prove to be an expensive mistake. A recent case dealt with a dispute over a notice to...

A tolerated trespasser is a person who has had an eviction order made against them but who remains in occupation of the property with the landlord’s acquiescence because they continue to pay rent. Since the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 came...

Two landlords were recentlly successful in persuading the High Court that a Corporate Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), under which they stood to lose the benefit of a guarantee for their rent, was ‘unfairly prejudicial’ to them as defined by...

It is often thought that an appeal to the Court of Appeal will lead to the resolution of a dispute, but in some cases, the Court will merely decide that another hearing is necessary. In a recent case , the Court heard an appeal concerning a boundary...

The Court of Appeal has now handed down its judgment in a recent case in which the lower court held that a man’s will was valid because he had testamentary capacity (‘was of sound mind’) when he gave instructions for it to be drawn up,...

A sale and leaseback agreement between a landlord and tenant was the subject of a recent court case . The decision turned on whether it was reasonable to refuse to comply with the agreement if vacant possession of a very small portion of the property could...

A recent case confirms that for the purposes of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 , which gives tenants of let houses the right to buy them in appropriate circumstances, a ‘house’ need not be used as a residence in order for the right to buy to be...

The directors of the Midlands will-writing firm Willmakers of Distinction have been jailed for the theft of more than £400,000 from the estates of clients. Nicholas Butcher was jailed for three and a half years and banned from acting as a director for...

One of the reasons a contract can be abandoned is that the performance of the contract is ‘frustrated’ – something happens which makes it impossible to complete. In August 2007, the builders Barratt contracted with site owner Gold Group...

Yet another recent case illustrates that the elderly and the bereaved are a target for those who seek to manipulate others for their own benefit. An NHS bereavement services adviser from Leicestershire was jailed after being found guilty of stealing...

It has been commonly accepted that where a construction contract gives rise to ‘liquidated and ascertained damages’ (LADs) for breach of the contract terms, the liability for the LADs ends when the contract is terminated. It now appears that that...

If you are thinking of buying a property, it is important to be aware of any covenants or easements relating to it. Almost two thirds of freehold properties are subject to an easement (which gives someone other than the owner a right over the land), and...