Insights: Legal Updates - January 2014

If you are planning to do some construction work the contractor should, before he starts work, produce the small print – either a contract or at the very least conditions on the back of an order form. If he does not, it is probably best not to use him. Construction contracts are notoriously long and […]

In the playground, disputes over priority and precedence were often settled by a game of rock, paper, scissors. The rules of the game and identification of a winner were either known or readily understood: paper wraps rock, rock blunts scissors, scissors cut paper. If only the game of contractual interpretation was so simple. Construction contracts […]

Recent Court of Appeal decisions have reinforced the need to consider carefully the requirements for a defendant to rely on the claimant’s unlawful conduct as a defence in tort, contract and property claims. In Gelley & Ors v Shepherd & Anor [2013] EWCA Civ 1172 the court reviewed the circumstances in which it will give […]

A recent case has highlighted some very serious issues for, perhaps, both landlords and tenants when a tenant remains in occupation after a lease which has been contracted out of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 expires. Normally when a contracted out lease expires, if a tenant were to remain in occupation without consent he […]

This question was addressed for the first time in a recent judgment of Mr Justice Akenhead in the Technology and Construction Court. In a decision likely to have wide-ranging consequences for construction, the ruling indicates that collateral warranties can be considered a construction contract under the Housing Grants etc. Act (Act). Though the court was […]

The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last month confirmed that capital gains tax (CGT) is to be extended to UK residential property owned by non-residents. At the time of writing this, we are still waiting for further details in the form of a consultation document. However, I predict that securing CGT Principal Private Residence (PPR) Relief will […]

The recent case of the “fleamarket Renoir” serves as a reminder of the dangers in buying art. A woman in Virginia bought a small painting and a box of trinkets for $7 in 2009. It turned out to be a Renoir worth $100,000, but last week the Virginia court ordered it to be returned to […]

Any UK hotel operator who wishes to attract overseas investment into their business has two options. They can seek to have the investment by way of straight equity, or a mixture of equity and debt. If the overseas investment is by way of equity, the overseas investor should not be subject to UK taxes in […]

In a judgment issued just before Christmas, the High Court rejected a challenge brought by a consortium of London local authorities to the process for granting exemptions to the permitted development right to change offices to residential use that was introduced by the Government earlier last year. While the High Court expressed some reservations about […]

Variations are difficult to avoid in construction work, but two recent cases show that there is plenty of scope for disagreement over how they should be valued Variations are an inevitable part of construction and it is probably impossible to avoid them altogether, given the complexities of the construction process. They do, however, present an […]