Legal Q&A

Our Practice Note: Applying for a Workers and Temporary Workers sponsor licence: key personnel and representatives Our Practice Note sets out that a sponsor licence application can, and in some instances will, be declined or, where applicable, the licence later revoked, if any of the Authorising Officer, Key Contact, Level 1 user, or any owner, director or other individual involved in the day-to-day running of the organisation: has any unspent convictions relating to immigration offences or a number of listed serious offences in Part 1 of the Sponsor Guidance at Annex L4 ( Part 1, para L4.3)—mandatory refusal of the application ( Part 1 Annex L1(b)) and/or mandatory revocation of the licence ( Part 3, Annex C1(b)) has previously been dishonest in their relationship with […] any other government department) […]—a licence application will normally be...

Under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords of specified residential tenancies are required, among other duties, to keep the installations in the dwelling-house for space heating and heating water in good repair and proper working order. A tenancy might also impose express duties on a landlord concerning provision of heating and hot water. See Practice Note: Residential tenancies—landlord’s implied covenant of fitness for human habitation and statutory obligation to repair. Where......

An in-depth review of welfare benefits lies beyond the remit of Lexis+ Family practical guidance; however, we point you to the government guidance Universal Credit: further information for families, which you may find useful. Universal Credit: an overview: Butterworths Family Law Service [8162] may likewise be of interest. If needed, consider seeking advice from a welfare benefits specialist where necessary and appropriate also......

section 3C leave This answer proceeds on the basis that no request was submitted to the Home Office to cancel the application, nor to retrieve the passport prior to departing the UK. If someone makes an application from within the UK to extend their permission to stay before their existing leave runs out using the online route, the date on which the application is treated as lodged is the date the online form is submitted, not the enrolment of biometrics. When someone who already has leave to remain applies from inside the UK to extend it, their current leave, together with all attached conditions, continues automatically so long as a valid application is made before that leave expires (known as ‘section 3C leave’)......

A request for a legal services order constitutes an interim step, brought under the specified procedure in the Family Procedure Rules 2010 ( FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, Pt 18......

Question 1 This reply proceeds on the basis that the agreement for lease amounts to a ‘new tenancy’ for the purposes of the Landlord and Tenant ( Covenants) Act 1995 ( LT( C) A 1995). Stated broadly, the combined operation of LT( C) A 1995, ss 2 and 3 is that the benefit and the burden of all ‘landlord covenants’ and ‘tenant covenants’ of a ‘tenancy’ (as those expressions are given in LT( C) A 1995, s 28) pass with the reversion and, correspondingly, the term, unless LT( C) A 1995 provides otherwise......

This Q& A concerns the ongoing statutory obligations owed by a local authority to former relevant children, as provided for in sections 23A–24B of the Children Act 1989 ( Ch A 1989). Local authority duties to a former relevant child A former relevant child means someone who previously qualified as a relevant child and has reached 18 years of age. For clarification on what counts as a relevant child in this context, consult the detailed section titled ‘ The relevant child’ within the Practice Note: Local authority duties for advice and assistance for certain children and young persons......

Section 164 of the Highways Act 1980 ( Hi A 1980) It provides that where land adjacent to a highway has a fence built with barbed wire, or bearing barbed wire on or within it, and the wire amounts to a nuisance to the highway, the highway authority may, by serving notice on the occupier of the land, require that the nuisance be abated within a period of between one and six months from the date of the notice......

If the local authority obtains an Interim Management Order ( IMO), the authority: is entitled to take possession of the property, as necessary, (subject to the rights of current occupiers) may carry out, where appropriate, and authorise a manager or another person to carry out, in connection with the property anything that a person with an estate or interest would, but for the order, be entitled to do Comparable powers also apply equally where a Final Management Order ( FMO) has been made (see section 116(3) of the Housing Act 2004 ( HA 2004))......

Unless an express statutory power exists, a compulsory acquisition of land does not permit taking adverse interests in, or rights over, the land acquired, where interests or rights benefit land that is not included in the acquisition......

Part 5 of the Localism Act 2011 ( LA 2011) introduced a range of measures concerning community empowerment. Among these, chapter 3 specifically obliges a local authority to keep a register of land within its area regarded as land of community value ( LA 2011, s 87)......

Inheritance tax ( IHT) treatment of the loan The IHT consequences for a loan turn on its precise wording and conditions, such as whether the borrowing is secured. You should also review the lender’s Will, in case the testamentary provisions discharge the liability. In practice, the difference between classifying the loan as an asset of the estate on death or as a failed potentially exempt transfer immediately before death may, in some cases, make no difference to the IHT due. To reach the correct analysis, the language of sections 4 and 3A of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 ( IHTA 1984) must be considered. In particular, section 4 (transfers on death) provides that IHT applies as though, immediately prior to death, the deceased had made a transfer of value—i.e. a deemed transfer immediately before death that triggers the IHT charge......

The issue of whether a given dealing is curtailed by a lease, whether approval is necessary and, if so, from whom, turns upon the interpretation of the relevant covenants undertaken by the parties......

When a tenant applies for a fresh business tenancy within the scope of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ( LTA 1954), any disagreement about the wording of that renewed tenancy is resolved by the court in line with LTA 1954, ss 32–35. In particular, LTA 1954, s 35(1) is central to how the court exercises its discretion when settling the clauses of a replacement lease. Although a tenant might invite the court to consider a side letter when fixing the terms of the new letting, a side letter is unlikely to secure the inclusion in the new lease of rights that did not feature in the previous instrument or earlier lease overall......

Key legal issues for guarantees Guarantees constitute contracts and must accordingly meet the four essential elements of a contract, namely: offer acceptance consideration the intention to create legal relations As a rule in law, consideration given in the past is ordinarily insufficient. A firm ought not to take a guarantee once it has already agreed to supply services to a client in question. The guarantee must also comply fully with s.4 of the Statute of Frauds 1677. It must thus be recorded in writing and properly signed by the guarantor as required. The Firm should also be alert to potential claims of misrepresentation, duress, and undue influence. It is sound practice to see that the guarantor receives independent legal advice on the implications of giving the guarantee. Is the guarantee a regulated credit agreement? Where undertaken by way of business in the United Kingdom, entering into a regulated credit...

Farm business tenancies—overview From 1 September 1995, the majority of lettings of agricultural land fall within the category of farm business tenancies under the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 ( ATA 1995). The present question concerns how a landlord may terminate such a tenancy where the tenants hold as co-owners. A letting qualifies as a farm business tenancy for the purposes of the ATA 1995 if the business conditions are satisfied together with either the agricultural condition or the notice condition. In essence, the land must, from the start of the tenancy, have been cultivated for the purposes of a trade or business, and either the tenancy’s nature is wholly or partly agricultural, or the parties served a notice before entering into it confirming that it would be treated as such. Subject to limited exceptions, the ATA 1995 supersedes the...

This Q& A This Q& A explores the steps administrators should take to contest a landlord’s attempt to forfeit a lease by peaceable re-entry, carried out unaware of an interim moratorium triggered by lodging a notice of intention to appoint administrators ( NOI). An NOI is to be lodged by the directors or the company in advance of making an out of court appointment pursuant to Schedule B1, paragraph 22, of the Insolvency Act 1986 ( IA 1986). This Q& A does not address a case where no NOI has been lodged. Where a company or its directors intend to appoint an administrator via the out of court route, they begin by filing an NOI, which imposes an interim moratorium under IA 1986, Sch B1, paras 44(2), 44(4). After the NOI is placed before the court, notice must also be served on the...

A landlord of commercial premises let under a lease may invoke the mechanism in Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 ( TCEA 2007) to recover rent due from the tenant under that lease. This mechanism is known as commercial rent arrears recovery ( CRAR) ( TCEA 2007, s 72(1)). When TCEA 2007 commenced on 6 April 2014, CRAR supplanted the landlord’s former common law right to distrain, which from that date was abolished ( TCEA 2007, s 71). TCEA 2007, accordingly, provides a complete statutory code defining the scope of the landlord’s remedy where rent on commercial premises is outstanding under the CRAR regime. If a tenant leaves rent unpaid, the landlord may serve a notice on any subtenant specifying the sum it is entitled to recover under CRAR ( TCEA 2007, s 81). That notice takes effect after 14 clear days...

Duty to participate in education and training until age 18 in England Sections 1 and 2 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 ( ESA 2008) impose a duty on individuals in England to take part in education or training where they: are beyond compulsory school age have not yet turned 18, and have not achieved a ‘level three qualification’ (two A-levels, or other broadly comparable qualifications) Accordingly, anyone whose highest attainment is at level 2 must remain in education or training until they reach 18. This duty can be satisfied by the person choosing to: be in suitable full-time education or training participate in training under a contract of apprenticeship or an apprenticeship agreement, or be in full-time employment and undertake sufficient relevant education or training during each relevant period (as defined) Note that ESA 2008, ss 19–39, which would place...

A nil-rate band discretionary trust A nil-rate band discretionary trust is a common method for reducing inheritance tax. It typically concerns property held by two people (most often a husband and wife as co-owners). They must own the home as beneficial tenants in common, meaning that any existing beneficial joint tenancy has to be broken. Each then executes a Will so that their share of the property, up to the inheritance tax nil-rate band, is directed not to the spouse but into a discretionary trust. The usual discretionary beneficiaries are the surviving spouse and the children. Instead of the survivor taking outright the other’s share of the property (whether by survivorship where it was a beneficial joint tenancy or by a legacy), the trust retains that share and, on the death of the survivor, the portion within the trust does not fall into the estate for...