Section 30 of the Family Law Act 1996 (FLA 1996) provides protection for spouses who personally have no interest or right to occupation in their family home, but where their spouse does hold an interest or estate. It grants them home rights, the right to not be evicted or excluded from the matrimonial home (except by way of an occupation order), and to enter and occupy that home with the leave of the court if they have already been excluded. The statute refers to the spouse who holds the original right to occupy as 'A', and the spouse receiving the home right as 'B', and that terminology is adopted in this reply. The home rights that B acquires under FLA 1996, s 30 also qualifies them to apply for an

Security for costs A claimant can take a commercial decision that it was not financially viable to bring a claim against the defendant, but a defendant does not have any choice about whether it was sued. Security for costs is a mechanism which is aimed at protecting a defendant when the court considers that there is a significant risk that the defendant will have no real prospect of recovering its costs if it is ultimately successful in its defence. This is to ensure protection and fairness for defendants. When considering whether to make an order for security for costs, the court will need to consider whether the conditions in CPR 25.13 have been satisfied. The order for security for costs is specific that the court is ordering the claimant to give security for the defendant’s costs of the claim. It does not make provision

In certain situations, it is possible to transfer up a judgment of the County Court for enforcement in the High Court. This method of transfer is only available for certain processes of enforcement (see Practice Note: County Court judgments and orders—additional matters). In this scenario, as the judgment has already been transferred up, CPR PD 70A should be considered. This provides that if for any reason proceedings for the enforcement of a judgment are transferred, the court will give notice of the transfer to all the parties (para 2.3, CPR PD 70A) and that when the proceedings have been transferred, the parties must take any further steps in the proceedings in the court to which they have been transferred, unless a rule or practice direction provides otherwise (para 2.4, CPR PD 70A). This therefore suggests that the application

For the purposes of this Q&A, the applicant needs to apply for a spouse visa from outside the UK, where they are currently present. As set out in Practice Note: Partners applying for entry clearance under Appendix FM: eligibility table, when applying for entry clearance as a spouse, the applicant would need to meet the requirements in the Immigration Rules, Appendix FM, Section EC-P. One of these requirements is that the applicant and the sponsoring partner must intend to live together permanently in the UK. This often overlaps with other relationship requirements such as the sponsoring partner being resident, present and settled in the UK, and that the relationship must be genuine and subsisting. For further information, see Practice Note: Partners:

Under section 102 of the Finance Act 1986 (FA 1986), where an individual disposes of any property by way of a gift, it may be treated as subject to a reservation of benefit if one of the following conditions applies: • the donee of the property did not take possession of the property and did not enjoy the use of the property at the beginning of the ‘relevant period’, ie a period running from seven years before the death of the donor or, if later, from the date of the gift to the date of that death, or • where at any time in the ‘relevant period’ the property has not been enjoyed by the donee to the entire exclusion, or virtually to the entire exclusion, of the

There is no prohibition on an application for a financial order being made after the decree absolute has been pronounced where the applicant has not remarried, although regard should be given to the potential impact of any delay in making the application. See Q&A: What is the impact of delay on an application for a financial remedy?

This Q&A considers the validity of an Islamic marriage under English law and, if the Islamic marriage is not recognised, whether a petition for divorce should give the date of the Islamic ceremony or the civil ceremony as the start of the marriage. Central to the appropriate course of action will be whether the Islamic marriage took place in England and Wales, or in another jurisdiction, and the validity of that marriage. If the couple married in a mosque in England and Wales that is a registered building pursuant to section 26(1)(a) of the Marriage Act 1949 (MA 1949), then the marriage is valid under English law. MA 1949, s 41(1) provides that any proprietor or trustee of a building which has been certified as required by law as a place

Where two or more people hold the beneficial interests in a property as joint tenants, they are each regarded as owning the entirety of them. There is no concept of each individual owning a share of the beneficial interests. When one of them dies, as a result of the principle of survivorship, the remaining tenants continue to hold the entirety of the beneficial interests. The estate of the deceased tenant does not acquire any interest. When there are two joint tenants and one dies, the survivor becomes the sole owner. Where two or more people hold the beneficial interests in property as tenants in common, they each own an individual share in them. They may assign it to third parties or among themselves so that one tenant in common might see an increase in the size of share held.

It appears from the question that the deceased first spouse may have died domiciled outside the UK. We are not able to advise on the foreign tax implications of either death (which may arise based on the couple’s residence or domicile status) and specialist advice should be sought in this regard. We refer you to Practice Note: IHT—nil rate band (NRB) and transferable NRB, which sets out the circumstances in which the basic nil rate band (NRB) and the transferable NRB relating to UK inheritance tax (IHT) can be claimed. In particular, each person, irrespective of their domicile, is entitled to the full basic NRB for their estate. For individuals not domiciled or deemed domiciled

The appointment of an expert in family proceedings is governed by Part 25 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955. Pursuant to FPR 2010, SI 2010/2955, 25.3 an expert has a duty to help the court on matters within their expertise, which overrides any obligation to the person instructing them. The court has a discretion as to whether each party should have their own experts, or whether under FPR 2010, SI 2010/2955, 25.11 a single joint expert should be instructed, which will often be the norm (FPR 2010, PD 25D, para 2.1). By FPR 2010, SI 2010/2955, 25.9 unless the court directs otherwise, expert evidence is to be given in a written report, with the parties being

Section 49 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (ABCPA 2014) makes provision for remedial orders in circumstances in which a person has been convicted of an offence in respect of a community protection notice. A community protection notice is a notice that imposes a requirement on an individual or body to stop doing specified things; to do specified things; or to take reasonable steps to achieve specified results (ABCPA 2014, s 43(3)). They may be issued by authorised persons as defined in ABCPA 2014, s 53(1) (a constable, the relevant local authority or

Care proceedings are governed by different statutes in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland respectively. Care orders in England and Wales are governed by the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989). A care order is made under ChA 1989, s 31. An interim care order is made under ChA 1989, s 38. The Scotland Act 1998 (SA 1998) and the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (CH(S)A 2011) allow for secondary legislation to be promulgated to govern cross-border issues. This secondary legislation is contained in the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (Transfer of Children to Scotland—Effect of Orders made in England and Wales or Northern Ireland) Regulations 2013, SSI 2013/99 and the Children’s Hearings