Land or buildings that have long been used for recreational purposes by local people can be registered as assets of community value under the Localism Act 2011 – but what happens if that use consists of acts of trespass? The…
Following the Grenfell disaster in 2017, cladding has come under close scrutiny with surveys being carried out as a priority in buildings across the UK. The failure to comply with Building Regulations (Part L1A 2010), which provides a framework for…
Relationships that start on the Internet are already leading to some interesting situations. A recent family case involved a British woman who had met a Pakistani man online and married him in the USA, where the couple had two children…
On our densely populated island, there is a pressing need for available land to be put to sensible use and, where restrictive covenants lurking in title deeds prevent that happening, they can be modified. In a case on point, a…
Oral assurances are all well and good but, if they are not recorded in a professionally drafted document, how can it be proved that they were ever given? A farmer's son faced exactly that difficulty in a High Court dispute…
If landowners allow vegetation to grow so that it affects visibility on adjacent highways, should they be held liable if accidents occur? In a decision that broke new legal ground, the Court of Appeal has answered that question with a…
The usual course of events on divorce is that there is a financial settlement which divides up the family assets as they are at that point in time. This takes into account the expected future income and need for income…
It is no real surprise that insurers are often not wildly enthusiastic about paying claims and will deny liability when they are able to do so. One condition which is normally present in a policy application is that the insured…
If you live in a block of flats, the law is there to protect you against noise or other nuisance caused by fellow residents. In a recent case, a woman who sued her upstairs neighbours over what she described as…
The wording of even widely used insurance policies is often not as neat and elegant as it should be and that is why judges are so frequently called upon to resolve issues of interpretation. One example concerned a medical company's…
