When a witness is served with a witness summons, they must be offered or paid: • a sum reasonably sufficient to cover their travelling expenses to the court and back to their home or place of work (CPR 34.7(a) and CPR PD 34A, para 3.1), and • compensation for their loss of time as may be specified in CPR PD 34A (CPR 34.7(b) and CPR PD 34A) The sum payable to the witness is ‘a sum in respect of the period

This Q&A assumes that the transfer is of a legal estate in land. In practice, trusts will frequently be created by a settlor transferring assets to independent trustees on the basis that the trustees will then hold the property on trust for specific individuals, whether creating rights in capital or income or giving a person a right to be considered by the trustees. The formal requirements to constitute a valid voluntary settlement (ie for no valuable consideration) must be complied with. A voluntary settlement is fully constituted when: • there is an intention to create a settlement and there is certainty of subject matter and objects (see Knight v Knight • the instrument declaring

Mutual enforceability clauses A mutual enforceability clause in a lease is a mechanism for a tenant to enforce covenants by other tenants in the same building. The clause may provide that a landlord will, if requested by a tenant, take action to enforce a breach of covenant committed by another tenant. See: Enforcement of covenants in flats: Halsbury's Laws of England [330]. For an example of a mutual enforceability clause, see Precedent: Lease of flat at clause 20.3: '20.3 Enforce obligations 20.3.1 The Landlord may and will, if so requested by the Tenant, enforce the obligations on the part of the tenant of every Other Flat 20.3.2 The Tenant will repay to the Landlord on demand the full amount of all costs and expenses of the Landlord of doing this 20.3.3 The Tenant must provide, before any step to enforce those obligations is taken, such security for the Landlord's costs and expenses as the

This Q&A assumes that the question relates to a business-to-business contract in a general commercial context. Contracts can be formed orally, by conduct or ‘under hand’ (in writing). There are certain situations when a written contract is required by law or is necessary to satisfy registration requirements. For more information, see Practice Note: Contracts required to be in writing. A certified copy is an accurate, complete and current copy (usually a photocopy) of an original document and, as such, is a form of secondary evidence, where it is not practical

A company registrar should only update the register of members/shareholders to reflect a transfer of shares if the instrument of transfer, ie the stock transfer form: • has been duly stamped (meaning that the full amount of stamp duty has been paid) • is exempt from stamp duty, or • has obtained full relief from stamp duty As noted in Practice Note: Stamp duty on transfers—scope, administration and enforcement, if a company registrar updates a register of members on the basis

If a lease is not contracted out of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954), the tenant will usually have a statutory right to renew its lease at the end of the term. If the landlord and tenant later want to enter into an agreement to surrender that protected lease, they must comply with the contracting out procedure because by surrendering the lease, the tenant is giving up its statutory right to renew. If the contracting out procedure is not properly followed, the agreement for surrender is void. LTA 1954, ss 38A(2) and 38A(4) states: “(2)    The persons who are the landlord and the tenant in relation to a tenancy to which this Part of this Act applies may agree that the tenancy shall be surrendered on such date or in such

There is no requirement to serve a statutory demand on a company before presenting a winding-up petition in respect of it (section 123 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986)). In fact, it is not uncommon for winding-up petitions to be presented following a simple debt becoming due (for example, invoices for a trade debt), a written demand having been sent to the debtor company and the debt remaining unpaid. The service of a statutory demand on a company, which is not complied with, simply creates a presumption

Covenants relating to property A covenant is an agreement between parties that one or some of them is bound to do or not to do a specified thing. For example, between a landlord and tenant, a tenancy agreement will usually contain various covenants such as a covenant for quiet enjoyment pursuant to which the landlord agrees not to disturb the tenant’s right to use the demised premises without interference or disturbance. In the context of the law of real property, owners of neighbouring pieces of land may enter into covenants between each other providing that one of the

Paragraph 4 of the Land Registry Practice Guide 7: entry of price paid or value stated data in the register states that: ‘We will enter the price paid or value stated where the applicant can be reasonably expected to have this information. We would expect the information

We refer you to Practice Note: Claims against companies subject to a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) which you may find useful for your purposes. If the claim

Subject to the intervention of statute, the right of the landlord to recover service charges from the tenants is governed by the terms of the lease. While a number of statutes impose obligations upon the manner in which service charges can be recovered (such as the consultation procedure to be followed under sections 20 and 20ZA of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (LTA 1985) when there are ‘major works’, or the information which under LTA 1985, s 21B must accompany any demand setting out the tenants’ rights) or the amount which can be recovered (by the requirement under LTA 1985, s 19 that they be reasonable in amount or the requirement under LTA 1985, s 20B that a demand be made within 18 months of the costs being incurred),

A deed of variation must comply with formalities required of deeds in general. See Practice Note: Deeds for details. You will note from this Practice Note that a deed is delivered when a party makes clear his intention to be bound, regardless of whether he retains possession of the document. If a party does not want to be bound immediately on execution of the deed, suspensory wording may be used in the testimonium (for example, ‘Executed as a deed and delivered on the date set out above’) or escrow conditions should be expressly agreed (see below). The concept of delivery means that it is possible for a deed to be valid even if it has not been dated. If a deed is not dated,