Section 30 of the Family Law Act 1996 (FLA 1996) confers various rights on spouses in certain circumstances, known as home rights. Protection is provided for spouses who personally have no interest or right to occupation in their family home, but where their spouse partner does hold an interest or estate. It grants them the right to not be evicted or excluded from the matrimonial home (except by way of an occupation

This Q&A assumes that the spouse has died leaving a will that does not provide for the surviving spouse, or has died intestate and the provisions of section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 (AEA 1925) are not sufficient to provide the family home to the surviving spouse. When considering the position of the surviving spouse, regard should be had to any (potential) exercise of the personal representatives’ common law or statutory powers of appropriation and/or the operation of section 5 of the Intestates Estates Act 1952, by which the surviving spouse of an intestate has the right to demand appropriation of the matrimonial home in or towards satisfaction of their entitlement

Where a spouse issues contractual/employment claims against the other during divorce and financial remedy proceedings, an application should be made for a stay of the contractual/employment claims within the relevant proceedings (following the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 procedure in the case of proceedings issued

A spouse may be provided with accommodation as part of their employment package at a subsidised rate or at no cost. Living in such accommodation may be necessary for the performance of their duties under their contract of employment. One of the factors to which the court must have regard in performing its discretionary exercise, is the ‘financial needs, obligations and responsibilities which each of the parties to the marriage has or is likely to have in the foreseeable

Section 30 of the Family Law Act 1996 (FLA 1996) provides that if one spouse (A) is entitled to occupy a dwellinghouse, and the other spouse (B) is not so entitled, then B has the following home rights: • if in occupation, the right not to be evicted or excluded from the dwellinghouse or any part of it except with the leave of the court by way of an occupation order made under FLA 1996, s 33 • if not in occupation, a right with the leave of the court so given to enter into and occupy the dwellinghouse These

A statutory corporation is likely to fall within Companies Act 2006, s 790C(12), which provides that corporations sole, governments or

Required form of statutory declaration In order for a landlord and tenant to agree that a business lease will not have the protection of the security of tenure provisions under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954), a contracting out process must be completed (LTA 1954, s 38A). That process includes the tenant making either a declaration or a statutory declaration in the prescribed forms. (LTA 1954, s 38A and Regulatory Reform (Business Tenancies) (England and Wales) Order 2003 (RR(BT)(EW)O 2003), SI 2003/3096, Sch 2, paras 3 and 4). The prescribed form of statutory declaration requires that the declaration is declared in front of ‘A commissioner for oaths or A solicitor empowered to administer oaths or (as appropriate)’ (RR(BT)(EW)O 2003, SI 2003/3096, Sch 2, para 8). Commissioner of oaths Under section 18 of the Statutory

An agreement to surrender is not enforceable against a protected or statutory tenant under the Rent Act 1977 (RA 1977): Appleton v Aspin. As explained in Practice Note: Vacant possession strategy for redevelopment, this is because the security of tenure conferred by the Rent Acts is lost only by a possession order made by a court, by the tenant giving

Rights of entry As with supplies of water and electricity, those who carry out essential functions relating to the supply of gas have powers of entry for various purposes. Among such powers, paragraph 23 of Schedule 2B to the Gas Act 1986 (GA 1986) includes a power of entry where necessary in order to perform the duty to maintain service pipes. GA 1986, Sch 2B, para 27 provides a specific power of entry for the purpose of placing, repairing or altering a pipe. For the purposes of this Q&A we have assumed that a power of entry is being validly exercised, in which case the starting point is that entering the property and carrying out the works is not itself wrongful. Damage The carrying out of gas works may involve

Where compliance with either the Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury Claims in Road Traffic Accidents or Pre-Action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury (Employers' Liability and Public Liability) Claims is not possible before the expiry of the limitation period, the claimant may start proceedings in accordance with CPR PD 8B and apply to the court to stay (ie suspend) the proceedings while the parties take steps to follow the relevant protocol. The claimant must send the claim form together with the order imposing the stay to the defendant. CPR PD 8B, paras 16.1–16.7 are silent on the timescale for sending the claim form and order.

This Q&A assumes that there is a dispute as to valuation of works carried out under a single unified construction contract between a contractor (C) and its sub-contractor (S) which is subject to the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (HGCRA 1996) but does not include bespoke provisions as to referral to adjudication, and thus, Part 1 of the Scheme for Construction Contracts (the Scheme), SI 1998/649 applies. A party to a construction contract has a right to refer ‘a dispute arising under the contract’ to adjudication at any time under HGCRA 1996, s 108(1). It is very important for a party considering referring a matter to adjudication to consider closely whether an adjudicator will have jurisdiction to resolve the relevant factual dispute (or disputes) within a single adjudication, or whether several adjudications are necessary. See Practice Note: The adjudicator's jurisdiction for a summary of the applicable principles. Where

We have assumed that the claim to be brought is under paragraph 75 of Schedule B1 to the Insolvency Act 1986 The Limitation Act 1980 (LA 1980) prescribes different limitation periods for different categories of claim. In an insolvency context, claims are generally divided into three categories: • actions based on a ‘speciality’, which have a limitation period of 12 years • claims to recover a sum of money under statute, which have a limitation period of six years, and • claims which have no limitation period involving a fraudulent breach of trust or claims to recover trust property, for example, from directors Actions based on a ‘speciality’ have a limitation period of 12 years (LA 1980, s 8). Speciality claims include those arising from a statutory cause of action and generally refer to claims to recover property (which would include setting