News & Insights

Auction house and third-party guarantees remain a hot topic in the art market. At the 2015 Autumn sales in New York, Bloomberg reported that $1 billion – approximately half – of the $2 billion total value of lots were already sold before the “paddles are even raised”.

The transition of a closely-held or family owned business is an important event for such clients and must be planned for accordingly.

In 2011, the government announced two new forms of tax relief to encourage philanthropy.

We are looking to renovate and extend a hotel that is listed and sits on a historically important site, with suspected archaeology remains.

With a lack of housing stock more properties are being sold by way of sealed bids. In most cases a buyer’s bid is to be given in a sealed envelope to the selling agent by a particular time setting out the prospective buyer’s best and final offer.

Where a sole shareholder dies who is also the sole director of a company, two key issues arise for the personal representatives…

The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 (the Act) operates to insert an implied term in business to business contracts for the supply of goods and services for interest on a qualifying debt, plus an additional fixed sum.

Family business owners will generally be familiar with the requirement that to obtain Business Property Relief (“BPR”), the business property must have been owned for a minimum of two years.

In Pitt v Holt, Futter v Futter [2013] UKSC 26, the Supreme Court significantly curtailed the hitherto wide application of what had become known as the Rule in Hastings-Bass and also set out authoritively the circumstances in which the Court may grant relief (in terms of rescission) for mistake in relation to a non-contractual voluntary disposition.

Three recent cases bring Agricultural Property Relief from Inheritance Tax into the spotlight.

A document that is referred to in a will may become part of the will and be admitted to probate together with the will.

The new Electronic Communications Code (“New ECC”), which is set out in Schedule 1 to the Digital Economy Act 2017 (“2017 Act”) and provides telecommunications operators with statutory rights in relation to their apparatus, came into force on 28 December 2017.

In December it was reported that the Michigan Court of Appeal has allowed a claimant to continue her lawsuit against a gallery relating to fake Salvador Dali prints, by ruling that the gallery’s alleged fraud had delayed the start of the limitation period (which would otherwise have now passed, barring her claim).

Q: There is an assumption that where litigation relating to trusts is concerned, there is less personal cost risk to the parties, as they can ultimately look to the trust funds to pay their legal costs. Is that correct?

Although open to criticism for producing terms that are arguably too favourable to contractors, the forms of building contract produced by the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) remain the most popular for use on construction projects in this country.

Under section 51(1) and (3) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, the Court has jurisdiction to award the costs of litigation to a non-party.

This note looks at what a landlord has to do to establish intention under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) ground (f), and/or ground (g), whilst also providing some practical guidance for landlords trying to establish it, as well as for tenants trying to challenge the landlord’s position.

At the heart of many trust disputes lies a dissatisfied beneficiary who objects to the decision the trustees have either already taken or indicated they are about to take.