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A house or flat is often purchased in the names of more than individual, i.e. “jointly”.  In such circumstances, consideration must always be given to the manner of such joint ownership and its consequences. Ignoring for the purposes of this article property purchased by business partners, private individuals have the options of either a “joint tenancy” or “tenancy in common”.  The word “tenancy” in this context can sometimes be a little confusing but it is no more than a label and does not infer any relationship of landlord and ten...

Several cases have come to my attention recently where, generally our older folk have been caused a great deal of stress and upset by unwanted intrusions into their homes or lives. This is sometimes by telephone calls, sometimes letters or their own genuine requests for information which then leaves them vulnerable to pressure sales techniques selling them high priced goods which they do not really want. Over the telephone there can be callers who are actively seeking to get bank details so as to take money from accounts- often the police do warn the general public when a particular scam ...

There has been some rumour about being able to die and pass on £1m worth of assets inheritance tax (‘IHT’) free, known as the ‘£1m nil rate band’. We each have an IHT nil rate band of £325,000 (this is subject to things like certain lifetime gifts) but anyway, we’ll use it here as our starting point. For somebody married or in a civil partnership, you can pass everything to your spouse or civil partner IHT-free. This means that, on the second death, the second spouse/civil partner can give away £650,000 because their late spouse or civi...

Each year in the UK, 520,000 people start a business of their own. It may be for building work, plumbing, providing child care or for design work, sometimes the business is set up out of necessity, sometimes it is a long held dream. For whatever reason it is set up, lots of time, energy and often money is invested into it and so a little care should be taken to protect it. Small business owners often do not have a great deal of capital to spare for extensive legal advice but there are a few things you can do to ensure that you do get fully paid for the work you have done or service which y...