Read our latest articles, news briefs and legal updates across all our different services.
First time buyers are being offered discounted homes as part of a new government housing scheme. The First Homes scheme will help local first-time buyers on to the property ladder by offering homes at a discount of at least 30% compared to the market price. That same percentage will then be passed on with the
The High Court has upheld a marketing company’s restrictive covenant preventing its sales advisors from competing with it for a six-month period. The case involved Credico Marketing Ltd v Lambert. Credico provided direct marketing services which were conducted by independent sale advisors (ISAs) by methods such as door-to-door sales. It did not contract directly with
A broker who traded while insolvent and took money from her company for herself while failing to pay creditors £140,000 has been disqualified for seven years. Kathleen Shepherd, aged 58, from Southampton, was the sole director of Shepherd Site Services Limited, a company which acted as a broker to provide waste management services to the
The government is extending protection against evictions and winding-up petitions for businesses that are still struggling because of Covid-19. Legislation will be introduced to ringfence outstanding unpaid rent that has built up when a business has had to remain closed during the pandemic. Landlords are expected to make allowances for the ringfenced rent arrears from
A finance consultancy was entitled to €855,000 commission for its part in acquiring investment money for a large property development. That was the decision of the Court of Appeal in a case involving EMFC Loan Syndications and The Resort Group. The Group had engaged EMFC to assist it to raise financing of up to €130
The Employment Tribunal has ruled that Sainsbury’s acted unfairly when it dismissed one of its workers after she had called her boss a “young idiot” on Facebook. The tribunal heard that 68-year-old Ms A Spence had worked for the supermarket chain for 24 years and had never before faced disciplinary action. In 2017, her daughter
Drax Power was entitled to withhold payment relating to one set of works to offset the cost of remedying defects in another set of works carried out by the same contractor. That was the decision of the High Court in a case involving Drax and Shepherd Construction Ltd. The issue arose after Drax engaged Shepherd
Two businessmen who breached their legal duties as company directors have been ordered to repay £600,000, even though the court accepted that one of them probably hadn’t realised that anything unlawful was happening. The case involved TMG Brokers Ltd, which had gone into liquidation. The liquidator applied for declarations under the Insolvency Act 1986 in
A landlord has won the legal right to challenge a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) proposed by the Nero coffee shop group. Nero, which has over 800 shops in the UK, was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and had fallen into rent arrears at its shops. Mr Young was the landlord of one of the
The government is to introduce a new watchdog organisation to protect workers’ rights and prevent unfair practices. Responsibility for tackling modern slavery, enforcing the minimum wage and protecting agency workers – currently spread across 3 different bodies – will be brought under one roof, creating a comprehensive new authority, which will ensure businesses that break