Read our latest articles, news briefs and legal updates across all our different services.
Landlords who rent out a holiday home on a regular basis will soon need an Energy Performance Certificate or risk facing a fine. Until now, the certificates have not been necessary for short holiday lets where there is no intention to create a tenancy. That will change on 30th June when certificates will be needed
The moratorium on new employment laws for small firms has now come into effect but business groups say that EU regulations will remain a major burden. The moratorium was announced in the Budget and covers start-up businesses and small firms with fewer than 10 employees. HMRC is defining a start-up firm as a business that
Tesco has been fined £48,000 for risking the safety of some of its staff. The company admitted that in 2009 it had failed to provide a safe working system relating to the loading and unloading of vehicles at its store at Warfield near Bracknell Forest in Berkshire. It had also failed to provide information, instruction,
Buying and selling businesses can be fraught with difficulties as highlighted in a recent case before the High Court. It involved a company that wanted to sell one of its subsidiaries. A Chief Operation Officer was appointed to oversee the sale and a purchaser was found. The officer prepared an information memorandum which described the
The High Court has ruled that a limited liability partnership had no right to expel one of its partners because there was no binding agreement giving it the necessary powers. The case involved a recruitment agency in which the three members had marketed themselves as partners since 2004. They then started to consider becoming a
The Government has shelved plans to extend the Time to Train regulations to smaller firms. Employees with organisations employing more than 250 people have had the right to request time for training since April 2010. The previous Labour Government had planned to extend that right to small and medium-sized businesses in April this year. However,
New research has revealed that businesses are becoming increasingly worried about the twin problems of rising debts and falling profits. Surveys carried out by the insolvency trade body R3 show that one in five businesses (19%) are worried about the amount of debt they owe to their creditors. At the same time, more than 850,000
The recession has sparked a surge in the number of disputes between landlords and business tenants, according to new research. Figures compiled by the legal publishers Sweet & Maxwell show a 43% increase in disputes in the High Court in London involving landlords and tenants of commercial property. The numbers rose from 28 in 2008
Unpaid volunteers are not ‘employees’ as far as anti-discrimination law is concerned and so they do not have the same protection as paid workers. That was the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the case of a volunteer who worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). When the CAB told her it no longer
The maximum limits for redundancy payments and awards for various employment rights cases have risen in line with the annual index-linked formula. The limits are linked to the Retail Prices Index, which rose by 4.6% during the qualifying period from September 2009 to September 2010. The maximum compensation that can be awarded for unfair dismissal