News

2 June 2014

Letting agents will have to publish full details of the fees they charge or face a fine under new regulations being introduced by the government. Ministers say the move will help to ensure a fairer deal for both landlords and tenants. Under the current regulations, agents have to list their compulsory charges to the tenant. […]

2 June 2014

Female entrepreneurs are being helped to grow their businesses by a new set of government schemes. The measures are part of the Small Business: GREAT Ambition campaign which aims to help small businesses survive and thrive as the economy continues to recover. Part of the campaign is targeted specifically at female business owners, with various […]

2 June 2014

A new strand of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme has been launched, with the aim of helping members of the armed forces to buy their own home. They can now apply to the Forces to Buy scheme for a loan of up to 50% of their salary to use towards buying a home. It […]

2 June 2014

Nearly two out of three people in the UK haven’t made a will and so risk creating a financial nightmare for their families, according to new research. The survey suggests that many people don’t make a will because they feel uncomfortable about discussing death and their dying wishes. However, there is a great deal at […]

2 June 2014

A businessman has been sentenced to four months in prison after failing to disclose financial information during his divorce proceedings. The high profile case involved former model Alisa Thiry and her second husband, Didier Thiry, a Belgian businessman and property developer. Their divorce involved complex discussions about how the couple’s considerable wealth should be divided. […]

2 June 2014

A property developer who breached his legal duties by failing to spend an investor’s money correctly has been ordered to make a full repayment. The case involved a property developer and an investor who agreed to set up a golf course in France. The investor provided £500,000 to get the project started in July, 2007. […]

2 June 2014

An extended family have been able to rectify a trust document which would have prevented them benefiting in the way intended when the settlement was first drawn up. The case involved a farming business. The shares were originally held by a husband and wife team in the 1970s. The couple put a number of shares […]

16 May 2014

Pembrokeshire-based Jellagen has raised £550,000 in equity investment to help expand its processing capacity and develop a range of collagen-based medical technology products. Berry Smith’s corporate team acted on behalf of the company. The healthcare company, which operates from a processing facility in Tenby, gained the investment led by the Welsh Government’s investment arm Finance […]

29 April 2014

The rising value of houses could turn inheritance tax into a major issue for thousands of families across the UK. The problem is that the inheritance tax threshold has been frozen at £325,000 until 2018; by that time, house prices are expected to have risen by 25%   It’s likely therefore that many people will find […]

29 April 2014

New rules to prevent people taking out mortgages they can’t afford have now come into effect. One of the key changes is that in most cases, people will need to get help from an adviser before taking out a mortgage. This will help borrowers to better understand whether they can really afford their mortgage, both […]

29 April 2014

Several new employment regulations affecting businesses and their employees have come into force in April and May. This is a brief summary of the main points: ACAS and Tribunal claims Employees wishing to bring claims before the Employment Tribunal must first contact ACAS, which will offer a conciliation service. The measure, effective from 6 May, […]

29 April 2014

A man has been told to pay his ex-wife a lump sum so that he can stop making annual payments once he has retired. The case involved a couple who had been married for 22 years before getting divorced in 2005. Both were qualified accountants, but the wife left work to raise their children. When […]

29 April 2014

A group of male maintenance staff have won a sex discrimination claim after discovering that their female counterparts were being paid more than them. The situation arose when the Swansea Metropolitan University (SMU) merged with the University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD). The eighteen men were originally employed by the SMU on a weekly […]

29 April 2014

Many people dream of setting up a new business and being their own boss. For those who succeed it can be a hugely rewarding experience that changes their lives forever. For those who fail, however, it can prove costly and demoralising. You can improve your chances of success by doing your homework before starting work […]

29 April 2014

A father’s will has been declared valid despite a challenge from his daughter who was disinherited. The father had two sons and a daughter. After his wife died he went to live with one of his sons and his daughter-in-law. He transferred the proceeds of the sale of his house to his son. He later […]

29 April 2014

The European Parliament has voted to bring in new measures that will make it easier for companies to recover debt across national borders. Up to one million small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Europe fail to recover cross-border debts. The average amount of debt written off by these companies is €600. This means that €600m […]

29 April 2014

A construction firm’s repeated delays when building a road amounted to breach of contract and entitled the customer to withdraw from the deal, a court has ruled. The firm was employed to design and build a road outside an airport. Construction work was slow and repeatedly delayed because of bad weather and unexpected issues. The […]

29 April 2014

A business tenant has failed to apply a break clause in its lease because the notice document didn’t follow the letter of the law correctly. The tenant had a 25-year lease and wanted to activate the break clause. The clause stated that any notice exercising the right to break “must be expressed” as being given […]

2 April 2014

The High Court has recently decided that it can order costs against a party who issues, but does not serve, a claim in order to “stop the clock” for the purposes of limitation.  This is important because it exposes Claimants who are investigating potential claims to the risk of having to pay a Defendant its […]

2 April 2014

Commercial law firm Berry Smith has appointed Emma Borrington as its latest partner. The 34-year-old from Cardiff joined Berry Smith in 2002 and is an experienced corporate lawyer who advises on the legal and commercial aspects of all forms of transactions for public and private companies. The newly appointed partner works with the firm’s large […]

1 April 2014

A court has ruled that a restrictive covenant involving a software company and a former employee was reasonable and so therefore enforceable. The company produced software for the fresh produce industry. They licensed their products for 12-month periods and renewed the licence upon payment of an annual fee. The sales manager had a post-termination restrictive […]

1 April 2014

A man who said his former employers gave him a bad reference because he had brought a discrimination case against them has won his victimisation claim. The man worked for a car sales and repair company but was dismissed because he was over 65 years old. He began proceedings for unfair dismissal and age discrimination. […]

1 April 2014

Late payments now lead to more credit insurance claims than insolvency, according to a recent survey. In the first three quarters of 2013, 60% of claims were made because of a customer’s protracted default, with 40% because of customer insolvency. That is in contrast to 33% for protracted default and 67% for insolvency the previous […]

1 April 2014

A court has ruled that a landlord was within his rights to refuse to renew tenancies to shopkeepers who had pestered him with frivolous lawsuits. The issue arose because over several years, the shopkeepers had brought a total of 10 claims against the landlord saying that he had obstructed their rights of way and their […]

1 April 2014

An insurance company has won a legal dispute with a trade union over commission payments on the sale of its services to new customers. The case involved Unite the Union and Liverpool Victoria Banking Services. They had an agreement whereby Unite allowed Victoria access to its members in order to market and sell services to […]

1 April 2014

More than 100,000 people have used various government schemes to buy a home over the last four years. Households have taken advantage of schemes such as Right to Buy and Help to Buy. The Right to Buy scheme gives people who have lived in a council property for at least five years the right to […]

1 April 2014

A woman’s will has been declared invalid after a court ruled that it had been forged by her son. The woman originally made a will in 1999, stating that she intended to split her estate equally between her two children. The son claimed the mother made a new will while she was dying from cancer […]

1 April 2014

A coach firm has won a competition claim against an airport which abused its dominant position in the market for its own financial gain.  The coach firm had operated a transport service between the airport and London Victoria for 30 years. When the contract ran out the airport operator conducted a ‘tender’ process. The firm […]

1 April 2014

Ministers say children will be better protected and family disputes will be less stressful following changes to legislation relating to divorce and separation. The main changes are that separating couples will be obliged to attend mediation sessions to try to reach agreements regarding childcare and finances, before they can take their disputes to court. If […]

1 April 2014

Berry Smith acted for AIM listed EKF Diagnostics in its acquisition of two international diagnostic businesses for a combined purchase price that could rise to over £60m. The Penarth-headquartered company entered into a conditional agreement to buy US-based molecular diagnostics developer Selah Genomics for a sum up to £42.5m. The consideration will satisfied through a […]

12 March 2014

Changes to the TUPE regulations, which protect the interests of employees when a business is transferred to a new owner, have now come into effect. The changes mean that employers can now renegotiate terms and conditions with their staff one year after they have taken control of a company, provided that the overall offer is […]

12 March 2014

Setting up a simple trust relating to his mother‘s home has saved a man and his wife several thousand pounds in capital gains tax. The case involved a woman who sold her house in 1996 to her son and his wife on condition that she was allowed to continue living there for the rest of […]

12 March 2014

Marital agreements including pre-nups and post-nups could become legally binding without the need for court approval under a proposed new law. At present, such agreements are not legally binding although there has been a growing trend for courts to uphold them unless they are unfair to one side or the other. Now the Law Commission, […]

12 March 2014

Several police officers have won age discrimination claims after being forced to retire early. The five police forces responsible could now have to pay out millions of pounds in compensation. Test cases were brought on behalf of 250 officers. They lost their jobs under regulation A19, which allows forces to forcibly retire any officer under […]

12 March 2014

A court has ordered that two boys should live with their father because their mother was too permissive and acted “more like a friend than a parent”. The couple divorced in 2002 and the boys went to live with their mother. The father was entitled to contact at weekends, but was regularly denied this by […]

12 March 2014

The government has made it easier for people to build their own homes by cutting the Community Infrastructure Levy on self-built accommodation. Property developers have to pay a levy to local councils to help with the cost of the infrastructure needed to support the development. Some local councils charge £100 per square metre for residential […]

12 March 2014

A landlord company has won its appeal to be paid money owed by a commercial tenant which had gone into administration before completing the surrender of its lease. The case involved a retail group that leased several properties.  It got into financial difficulty and began proceedings to surrender the leases. Money was held in escrow […]

12 March 2014

The government is looking at ways to ensure that large businesses pay their suppliers on time. The Prompt Payment Code (PPC) was set up in 2008 to encourage companies to pay invoices within the agreed timescale. However, the PPC has been widely criticised for being ineffective. Recent research by YouGov revealed that 85% of small […]

12 March 2014

An engineering firm has lost its appeal against having to pay damages to an airline company. The case involved a breach of contract by the engineers. They had an agreement with the airline that they would service aircrafts at a specified hourly rate. However, the airline was not obliged to use the service. Over time, […]

12 March 2014

After many years building up a business, directors often worry about how to bow out successfully while ensuring that the firm continues to thrive.  The key to ensuring a smooth succession is to start planning as early as possible ahead of your target retirement date. The first step is to hold meetings with those who […]

27 February 2014

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the UK are failing to invoice their clients for up to £3.7billion a year, according to recent research. Even though businesses are battling through a difficult economic climate, 20% admit they have forgotten to invoice for work on at least one occasion. Of the 450 SMEs surveyed, 6% admitted […]

27 February 2014

The director of an insolvent company has been ordered to return money he paid to himself at a time when he knew the business was struggling and likely to fail. The case involved the director of a company specialising in waste management projects. The business got into financial difficulties and started to build up debts […]

27 February 2014

An installation company has won compensation from a firm of surveyors who were negligent when assessing the suitability of properties for cavity wall insulation. The installers won their case even though they had been negligent themselves. Employees of the surveying firm had inspected two timber-framed houses to determine whether they were suitable to have cavity […]

27 February 2014

A pharmaceutical company has failed to prevent two former employees setting up their own firm and competing for business from one of its main customers, the NHS. The issue arose when the company considered selling adrenaline pens but then decided not to go ahead. Two of its employees thought there was a market for the […]