The tenants held five flats on long leases from the landlord and were required to contribute to their upkeep. When the landlord wished to undertake substantial works on the flats, a consultation process was triggered, requiring the landlord to provide information about the proposed works
In a case which underlines the potentially serious consequences of delay in seeking legal redress, an asbestos management contractor which claimed it was wrongly directed to pay more than £650,000 by an adjudicator left it too late to challenge the decision. The company had been
In an important ruling for the farming community and tax professionals, the Upper Tribunal (UT) has granted agricultural property inheritance tax relief in respect of a farmhouse even though the building and the land associated with it were not in common ownership at the time
In a serious blow to non-profit-making private members organisations, a small social club has failed to convince the First-Tier Tribunal that an electronic lottery machine that its members enjoyed for three years was exempt from Amusement Machine Licensing Duty (AMLD). Despite recognising that developments in
In a decision which is likely to result in substantial savings for housing estate landlords, the Upper Tribunal (UT) has ruled that a concierge room within the curtilage (the legal term for a property as a whole)of a residential development is exempt from non-domestic rates. Notwithstanding
In an important ruling which distinguished religious vocation from employment, the Supreme Court has ruled by a majority that a Methodist minister who submitted to the church’s discipline for life was not an employee and was thus precluded from making an unfair dismissal claim. In
An artificial tax-avoidance scheme that involved selling shares at massive ‘paper losses’, which would have led to 400 wealthy people saving an average of nearly £1/2 million each in tax, has been defeated by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The scheme involved buying shares at
In circumstances where a commercial lease imposed no obligation on the landlord to repair those parts of the building which it had retained, no such duty could be implied at common law and the tenants were not entitled to compensation following the repeated ingress of
The local authority-owned company that runs Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre and other venues in the city is in line for a multi-million-pound VAT rebate after the First-Tier Tribunal accepted that it had for many years mistakenly paid VAT output tax on ticket booking fees. National
In the context of a major construction project, the Court of Appeal has emphasised that delay in completion of works will only be sufficient to justify repudiation of a contract if it goes to the root of the agreement between the parties and deprives one
