The widely reported case concerning an elderly couple who signed each other’s wills by mistake has reached the Supreme Court. The case sparked outrage because the incorrect signing of the wills was an obvious error but the ruling of the…
A Chinese restaurant which provided a residential property for use as accommodation for employees as part of their contracts of employment has persuaded the First-tier Tribunal that the house was a business asset for the purposes of ‘taper relief’ for…
When a woman’s niece and great niece were appointed her deputies (persons responsible for looking after her financial affairs) under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, they made gifts of her assets to charities, themselves, family members and friends. They also…
A trust exists where a person who has legal ownership of something (‘the object of the trust’) is obliged to act with respect to the object of the trust for the benefit of some other person or persons (‘the beneficiaries’)…
There is a common belief that fairness is a concept that pervades the law, including tax law. However, a recent tax case shows that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) do not necessarily agree. The case involved a man who joined…
A couple’s assets on divorce can include matrimonial property – i.e. assets acquired during the course of the marriage – and non-matrimonial property, which is commonly defined as property acquired before the relationship began or property that was inherited by…
The Supreme Court has ruled that a daughter cannot succeed to a tenancy after the death of her mother because the right of succession belongs to her estranged father. The woman’s parents became tenants in 1967 and the freehold of…
A bankrupt who is entitled to obtain a pension simply by asking for it cannot seek to have it protected from his creditors, the High Court ruled recently. The bankrupt had a pension policy which he was entitled to take,…
A recent case shows how a person who is intent on being difficult can obstruct matters for a long period. In the case in point, the court (after a legal battle lasting eight years and involving 25 court hearings) eventually…
When a museum came up short in its ability to fund a pension scheme deficit, the question of the status of the museum’s exhibits became of interest: if they belonged to the museum trust, they could be sold to fund…
