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A vacant commercial property qualifies for 100 per cent rate relief for the first three months after it becomes empty (six months if it is an industrial property). Once it has been occupied for six weeks, the clock is ‘re-set’, so that if it...

When a charitable gift in a will fails (other than because the estate lacks the assets necessary to make the bequest), the resulting effect on the distribution of the estate depends on the circumstances. Normally, such a gift fails because the charity named...

When two young men who were friends and sometime business associates decided to buy a flat together in 1997, they arranged it so that the property was registered in the name of the one who had paid the larger share of the deposit. He took out a mortgage and...

The Court of Appeal has rejected a claim for damages by a woman climber who was injured when a stunt being filmed for a television production went wrong. The woman was on a climbing expedition in Ecuador during which she volunteered to pretend to fall...

Energy drinks company Red Bull GmbH has triumphed in a High Court trade mark dispute after taking exception to the strap line ‘NO BULL IN THIS CAN’ being used on cans of a rival brew. The company had been accused in court of adopting a...

The courts have recently been asked to rule in a case in which the ex-wife of a wealthy businessman sought an increase in the financial provision she received from her ex-husband following their divorce. She had received a lump sum divorce settlement of...

The theft of a disk from HSBC in Switzerland, data from which eventually found its way to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has led to the conviction of a Berkshire man who admitted to evading tax of £430,000. The money on which the tax was due came from...

A judge has underlined the importance of local employment opportunities as a factor to be taken into account when considering the grant of planning permission, in this instance for a multi-storey development that included 475 student rooms. The London...

Failing to make formal arrangements over who should own property is a frequent cause of family disputes. One such case concerned an industrial unit, which was owned by a businessman who rented it out. He died in 2000 and the title to the property passed...

Dual or multiple employment arrangements are popular with employees domiciled abroad whose duties are performed partly in the UK and partly outside the UK. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have concerns, however, that such arrangements do not always reflect the...