Easements An easement is a right that one area of land (the ‘dominant’ land) has over another area of land (the ‘servient’ land). Easements may be positive, giving a right to do some act on the servient land (for example a right of way) or negative, a right to receive something from the servient land (for example a right support). See Practice Note: Easements—nature and characteristics. These rights can be extremely significant, both for the benefiting and the affected land. By way of example, a right of way may provide an access route, without which the benefiting land would be substantially less valuable, while a right of light may prevent building work from being carried out on the affected land, drastically reducing the development potential. Interference with an easement is a trespass and the remedy is generally

An easement is a right afforded to land (the dominant tenement) over adjoining land (the servient tenement). There are many types of easement, with rights of way being perhaps the most common, but they can range from rights to abstract water to rights of storage, parking, access and the like. Easements attach to the land and are registrable meaning that they will bind future owners of the servient land and will continue to benefit the dominant land even after a change of ownership, making them proprietary rights, as distinct from a mere licence personal to a landowner from time to time. Easements can be acquired

Our Practice Note: Care homes—placement options and fees provides a summary on the treatment of property in the means assessment for residential care provision. Under the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, SI 2014/2672, when an assessed person moves permanently into residential care, their former home can be counted as capital in assessing how

Under section 135(1)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996), an employee may claim a statutory redundancy payment without being dismissed in one of two situations: • where the employee is ‘laid-off’ by the employer, ie when the employer temporarily shuts down its operation because it cannot find any or enough work for the employees • where an employee is put on short-time working—short-time working occurs where the employer requires the employee to do less than their full contractual hours and the employee receives less pay as a result In summary, a statutory redundancy payment is payable where: • there

As mentioned in the Practice Note: TUPE—what pension benefits should the transferee provide?, the Pensions Regulator states in its auto-enrolment guidance # 2 that, on a TUPE transfer, transferring employees ‘are treated as a new joiner’ for the new employer (the transferee). The Pensions Regulator explains what this means by specifying

SRA standards and regulations An individual acting for a client on a matter must make the client aware of all information material to the matter of which the individual has knowledge, unless certain exceptions apply. There are four exceptions to the duty of disclosure: • the disclosure of the information is prohibited by legal restrictions imposed in the interests of national security or the prevention of crime, eg under the Official Secrets Act 1989, or the tipping off provisions under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002—see Practice Note: Tipping-off and prejudicing an investigation—core details for law firms • the client gives informed consent, given or evidenced in writing, to the information not being disclosed

To succeed in a claim of unfair dismissal, the claimant has to establish that he was dismissed by the employer. A contract of employment may terminate in a number of different ways (see Practice Note: Distinguishing dismissal from other forms of termination) but the circumstances in which an employee is treated as having been dismissed for the purposes of an unfair dismissal claim are limited to: • where the employee's contract of employment is terminated by the employer, whether with or without notice • where the employer gives notice to terminate the contract and, within the notice period, the employee gives counter-notice that expires before the end of the original notice period • where the contract of employment is a limited-term contract and terminates on the happening of the limiting event without being renewed under the same contract • where the employee terminates the contract by resigning, whether with or

This Q&A assumes that the proposed reduction of the hurdle applying to the growth shares is not part of a pre-ordained series of steps or a tax avoidance scheme (for example, where it was planned from the outset to award the shares with a high hurdle and then reduce the hurdle to give a benefit to employees). In such a case, HMRC could effectively seek to argue that the employment-related securities legislation is not engaged, and that the employees are simply taxable to general earnings, following the example of PA Holdings Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners and UBS AG v Revenue and Customs Commissioners. Where section 431 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA 2003) election has been validly signed by the employee and employer within the requisite deadline then, as you say,

A Post-Employment Notice Pay (PENP) calculation is based on a formula that enables an employer to determine the taxable element of a termination award where the amount of basic pay that an employee receives is less than they would have done had they been given full or proper notice. The formula is basic pay multiplied by the number of unexpired notice days divided by the number of days in the pay period, minus any sums other than holiday pay and termination bonuses that are paid net of tax. The need for the PENP calculation is as a result of changes made from 6 April 2018 which made all payments in lieu of notice chargeable to tax and national insurance. This

An employee's contract of employment may contain provisions entitling him or her to be paid during any periods of sick absence, including the duration of any entitlement to sick pay, the rate at which sick pay will be paid, and any other conditions relating to eligibility for receiving sick pay. Typical conditions are likely to include complying with the stipulated notification requirements. The central premise underlying the sick pay scheme is usually that the reason for the employee’s absence from work is because they are too sick to be at work (ie they would be at work if it wasn’t for the fact that they were ill). See, for example, Precedents: • Policy and procedure—sickness and attendance • Employment contract basic version (in particular, clause 8) As to statutory sick pay (SSP), all employees, with certain exceptions, are entitled to receive SSP

Suspension pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation It is common for an employment contract to include the right to suspend an employee with pay for the purpose of investigating allegations of misconduct. Generally, during a period of suspension an employee is not expected to perform any work while the investigation is in progress, and, where the employee usually works at the employer's premises, to remain away from the workplace. Suspension is used as a protective measure while the employer investigates allegations of serious misconduct against an employee, and the employer has reason to believe that the employee's continued presence in the workplace or performance of duties may: • impede the investigation into the allegations, or • present a serious risk to the interests of the business, its customers, or other employees In some circumstances, employees may be able to claim that, by suspending them, their employer has breached: • the implied obligation to provide work and/or • the implied duty of

The Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010) provides for individuals who have a ‘protected characteristic’ to be protected against discrimination and other prohibited conduct. ‘Disability’ (as defined in EqA 2010, s 6, Sch 1 Pt 1) is one such protected characteristic. For further information, see Practice Note: Disability. Where someone has the protected characteristic of disability the types of discrimination specifically prohibited (in addition to other types of prohibited conduct) include: • discrimination arising from disability (EqA 2010, s 15(1)(a)) • an employer’s failure to comply with the duty to make reasonable adjustments (EqA 2010, s 21) For further information about what constitutes prohibited conduct under the EqA 2010 (including other forms of potentially relevant discrimination), see: Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc)—overview. For summary of the key issues pertaining to disability discrimination, see Practice