A liquidator or trustee in bankruptcy has the power to disclaim onerous property. A disclaimer '(a) operates so as to determine, as from the date of the disclaimer, the rights, interests and liabilities of the company in or in respect of the property disclaimed; but (b) does not, except so far as is necessary for the purpose of releasing the company from any liability, affect the rights or liabilities of any other person' (section 178 of the Insolvency Act 1986). Accordingly, disclaimer terminates the rights, interests and liabilities of the tenant under the lease, from the date of disclaimer. If the tenant is the only party with an interest or liability in respect of the lease, it will come to an end for all purposes. If there are other parties with an interest or liability in the property, their position is deemed

In answering this Q&A, research has been limited to cover an oral tenancy of commercial premises. The nature of the right and when it arises The right to forfeit is a contractual right and the provisions in the lease determine the circumstances in which a landlord has a right to forfeit (section 146 of the Law of Property Act 1925). If there is no express provision in the lease, the right to forfeit may still arisen due to a breach by the tenant of an express or implied condition, ie a term of the lease which

A County Court Judgement (CCJ) is a judgment made against a party in County Court proceedings requiring that person to pay a sum of money. If a debt is not satisfied it will be registered at the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, and made public. It will impact on credit reference searches and applications for credit such as credit cards or mortgages. It will remain on the register for a period of six years. A CCJ is colloquially considered to be synonymous with the entry of the judgment on the register.

A child arrangements order (CAO) is an order made under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989) that provides: • with whom a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact with, and • when a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact with any person For the purposes of ChA 1989, a child is defined as a person under the age of 18 (ChA 1989, s 105(1)). The duration of a CAO is subject to a series of restrictions contained in ChA 1989. ChA 1989, s 9 imposes restrictions on the duration for which a CAO can be made in relation to the age of the child—there are distinctions depending on whether it is a CAO that regulates living arrangements or

There is nothing to suggest that a Will attached to a grant of probate can be redacted, whether in whole or in part. The starting point is that it is generally understood that a Will or any other document admitted to probate must be open to inspection. This is, however, subject to probate rules and the control of the High Court (see sections 124 and 125 of the Senior Courts Act 1981). Should the concerns about disclosing personal details in the Will warrant it, there is the possibility of seeking an order to seal the Will against inspection (see Non-Contentious Probate Rules (NCPR 1987), SI 1987/2024,

This Q&A is in the context of a business-to-business contract. In considering the effect of death on rights under a contract, it is necessary to distinguish between discharge of the contract itself and discharge of an accrued right of action for breach of contract. Generally speaking, the death of a contracting party will have no effect upon either the contract or rights already accrued under it. Thus the personal representatives of the deceased party may complete performance and sue for the exchange bargained for and, indeed, they are bound to complete performance at the demand of the other party so far

Under section 74 of Finance Act 2003 (FA 2003) stamp duty land tax (SDLT) relief is available where a chargeable transaction is entered into by a person or persons nominated by qualifying tenants of residential blocks of flats exercising their right of collective enfranchisement (ie to acquire the freehold and superior leasehold interests in their flats,

The key characteristic of a fixed charge is that the security holder exercises a certain level of control over the charged asset preventing the security provider from doing anything to take the asset outside of the scope of the security. The issue here is whether the security holder, by giving an advance consent to release, even subject to criteria, forgoes control and allows the security provider to remove the asset from the ambit of the security in a way that turns the fixed into a floating security interest. What level of control is necessary? The practical difficulty in giving definitive advice on this issue is that in the leading case on re-characterisation of a fixed charge; National Westminster Bank plc v Spectrum Plus Limited, the judges gave no guidance on the level of control that it was necessary for a fixed charge holder to exert over an asset to

A highway at common law is a way over which there exists a public right of passage for all persons to pass and repass freely at all times without let or hindrance, (see Commentary: Meaning of 'highway' at common law: Halsbury's Laws of England [1]). The Highways Act 1980 (HA 1980) does not contain a substitute definition, section 328 thereof defining ‘highway’ as the whole or part of a highway other than a ferry or waterway, and including bridges and tunnels forming part of the highway. A highway is thus a right, rather than an interest in land, and HA 1980 provides for the statutory framework for the establishment and maintenance of highways (Parts III and IV respectively). Many highways are maintainable at public expense, but some highways will be maintainable at private expense; the question of whether maintenance is public or private is not determinative of whether a way is a highway or a private right of way. The majority

Pursuant to paragraph 35(1) of Schedule 5 to the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, in order to be an enterprise management incentive (EMI) qualifying an option must confer a right to acquire shares that: • are fully paid up • not redeemable shares, and • form part of the ordinary share capital of the relevant company These requirements must be met at the time that the option is granted. It should be noted that both the EMI legislation and HMRC guidance are not

Section 1(6) of the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925) provides that minors are not capable of holding a legal estate in land and that by virtue of paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 1 to the Trust of and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TOLATA 1996) any purported grant of a legal estate to a minor will not be effective to pass on the legal estate. In other words, any purported grant of a legal estate will operate as a declaration that the property is held on trust for the minor. Additionally, TOLATA 1996, Sch 1, para 1(2) deals with those cases where there is a purported grant of legal estate in land to a minor

There is nothing about the nature of a commercial tenancy which distinguishes it from any other tenancy (whether used for residential, agricultural or other purposes). All tenancies are leases. While the word ‘lease’ can be used as a verb to refer to the process of granting a tenancy, or as a noun to refer to the document which contains a grant, most fundamentally, a ‘lease’ is understood as the property right vested in the grantee. In this sense, it can also be referred to as ‘a leasehold interest’ or ‘a term of years absolute’ as referred to in section 1(1)(b) of the Law of Property Act 1925 (LPA 1925). Moreover, a ‘term of years absolute’ is then defined in LPA 1925, s 205 as: ‘…a term of years (taking effect either in possession or in reversion