Section 24 of the Wills Act 1837 provides that a Will only speaks from death. It is therefore possible that an executor may not have been informed of their appointment by the testator or otherwise be aware of their appointment as an executor. There is no positive duty for an executor, who may or may not be aware of their appointment in the testator’s Will, to investigate whether a testator has died. In common law and in equity as well as under section 1(1) of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 (AEA 1925), the testator’s real property automatically vests in all their executors at the point of death with personalty vesting in all their executors

Practice Note: LTA 1954—terms of the renewal lease explains that the terms of collateral arrangements can be read by the court in conjunction with the terms of a lease. In Homebase v Allied Dunbar Assurance, an underlease was drafted in compliance with the alienation covenant in the headlease, including that the rent and repairing covenant were to be the same as under the headlease. However, a collateral agreement was also drafted, under which the parties agreed that the rent would

The question of whether a person or entity is a data processor or data controller will depend on the circumstances of each individual case. The key will be whether the expert witness determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data (see Practice Note: Key definitions under UK data protection law—Controller). The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published guidance on controllers and processors under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It explains that: • if you exercise overall control of the purpose and means of the processing of personal data, ie you decide what data to process and why—you are a controller • if you don’t have any purpose of your own for processing the data and you only act on a client’s instructions, you are likely to be a processor—even if you make some technical decisions about how you process the data The ICO has also published more detailed guidance on controllers and processors. In the context

An easement of light like any other easement is a right that benefits one plot of land by giving such rights over adjacent land. A right to light is an important right as it prevents the owner of the servient land from interfering with that right, for example, by the construction of buildings on their plot of land which would block light. The scope of such a right is ordinarily that the dominant land has the right to a reasonable amount of natural light from the sky to the windows of their buildings. The right to light applies in respect of windows or other apertures in a building rather than to the land itself. The right is therefore not a general right to receive light but rather relates to a specific dwelling house or other

There is no statutory right to expel a partner, which means that a partner can only be expelled from a partnership if the partnership agreement expressly provides for this. Section 25 of the Partnership Act 1890 (PA 1890) provides: ‘No majority of the partners can expel any partner unless a power to do so has been conferred by express agreement between the partners.’ Most written partnership agreements contain a clause saying that a partner may be expelled by decision of a specified majority of the others in certain circumstances. The partners are free to draft the precise procedure for making such a decision on whatever terms they see fit. There is no reason why such a decision would not be delegated to a specified group of partners, such as the founder partners in this instance. PA 1890, s 24(5), provides

This Q&A relates to the position under the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation, Retained Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (UK GDPR) regime. We refer you to the following Practice Note: Determining roles under data protection law in commercial transactions between businesses (processor, independent controller or joint controller), which among other things: • defines the key terms ‘processor’, ‘controller’ and ‘joint controller’ and explains what is meant by an ‘independent controller’ • considers how to determine if a party is an independent controller, joint controller or processor • highlights that an organisation is not by its nature either an independent or joint controller or a processor.

For the purpose of this Q&A, we have assumed that the surviving spouse has not yet died. Merging interests A life tenant is entitled to income produced by the trust fund or to the use of trust assets. The life tenant is not entitled to capital held for the beneficiaries in remainder on the termination of the life interest. Put very simply, income is payable to A for life and on A's

Under section 2(3) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA 2015), a consumer is defined as an individual acting for purposes that are wholly or mainly outside that individual’s trade, business, craft or profession. Further to this, the explanatory notes to CRA 2015 (at para [36]) provide that: ‘…a consumer must be an “individual” (that is, a natural person)—the Act’s protection for consumers does not apply to small businesses or legally incorporated organisations (eg companies formed by groups of residents). If a group of consumers contracts for goods, services or digital content, they are not left without protection. For example if one consumer makes all the arrangements for a group to go to the theatre or to go on holiday, depending on the circumstances, each member of the group may be able to enforce

For information about payslips or pay statements, generally, see Practice Note: Pay statements and records. A worker (or, in relation to wages or salary paid in respect of a period of work beginning before 6 April 2019, an employee) is entitled to be given a written itemised pay statement by their employer at or before the time any wages or salary are paid to them. This is to ensure that workers have sufficient information in their pay statement to understand how their net pay has been calculated. The right to an itemised pay statement is not dependent upon a qualifying

Individual voluntary arrangement An individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) is an agreement that is entered into under Pt XIII of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) between an individual and their creditors and maybe even third parties for an arrangement of that person’s debts or a scheme or arrangement of their affairs. An IVA has contractual effect, the terms of which are located in the IVA proposal and is binding on all creditors, including those creditors who voted against the proposal, so long as the voting threshold approving the IVA proposal was obtained. The effect of an IVA is determined by reference to its terms. In Re SHB Realisations Ltd (formerly BHS Ltd) (in liquidation); Wright and another (as joint liquidators of SHB Realisations Ltd (formerly BHS Ltd) (in liquidation))

The operation of the basic nil rate band (NRB), the transferable NRB and how it is calculated is explained in Practice Notes: IHT—nil rate band (NRB) and transferable NRB and IHT—calculation of nil rate band and transferable NRB. The amount of the transferable NRB is calculated by determining the fraction of the NRB which is not used on the first death. See also HMRC Inheritance Tax Manual IHTM 43020. There is nothing in the rules relating to the NRB to prevent the operation of the transferable NRB simply because of the fact that the second spouse dies soon after the first. However, also refer to Practice Note: IHT—quick succession relief. Practice Note: IHT exemptions and reliefs on death and lifetime

For the purpose of this Q&A, we have assumed that: • the settlor, trustees and beneficiaries have been UK-resident at all relevant times • the settlor of the trust is a parent of the children whose education costs are to be paid from the trust A gift into a ‘maintenance and education trust’ should qualify for exemption for inheritance tax purposes under section 11 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984), although it is important that the terms of the trust should reflect the conditions attaching to the exemption. Thus, for the purposes of IHTA 1984, s 11(1)(b)