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If you are approaching pension age, unless you are one of the increasingly few with a salary-related pension scheme, you would be wise to take professional advice before you take any irrevocable action. The decisions taken at certain points in managing your...

Tax changes that affect residential landlords have sparked a massive sell-off, with 133,000 rental properties likely to be sold in the next year according to a survey by the Residential Landlords Association. In the year ended 31 March 2017, 46,000 let...

One of the dilemmas the courts face from time to time is how to achieve the right balance between individual privacy and the public's right to know about things. In a recent case , a patient who had made a complaint against a GP sought publication of the...

The recent £500,000 fine for Facebook regarding the transfer of data to Cambridge Analytica was widely criticised as being inadequate (Facebook makes roughly £3.5 million per hour) but it should not be forgotten that the fine was the maximum...

Japanese knotweed is a very considerable pest – 'indisputably the UK's most aggressive, destructive and invasive plant', according to the Environment Agency –as it can cause damage to buildings, spreads easily and is difficult to eradicate. As...

One of the requirements for a will to be accepted as valid is that the person who makes it must have 'knowledge and approval' of its contents...in other words, they must understand what the will says and what it means in practice. It might seem, therefore,...

Anyone who has bought a new build property will be familiar with a 'snag list' of items that should be rectified. Normally these don't present too many issues, but when the snags are significant, and the new build is one in which there is a landlord who is...

Oil exploration is a risky business and industry contracts commonly make provision for unforeseen events that interrupt production – known to lawyers as 'force majeure'. Force majeure clauses are common in many other types of contract also. In a recent...

It is normal for money, often considerable sums, to pass between family members. However, when this is done without legal advice, it is only too common for disputes to arise as to whether or not the sums concerned were meant as gifts. Disputes between family...

Despite strong representations from the professional community, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have decided that they will stick with a 30-day initial payment requirement for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on residential property gains for disposals after April...