About 15% of land in England and Wales remains unregistered. Much of this relates to landed estates and vast tracts of countryside but there are still significant pockets of unregistered title even in urban areas. Registration of land first started in England and Wales in the 19th century although not centralised and was brought together […]
The family of Lee Kun-hee, the late chairman of Samsung Electronics, are reportedly donating 23,000 works of art to South Korean Museums in order to reduce his estate’s $10.8bn inheritance tax bill. The inheritance tax liability (which equates to approximately 12 trillion South Korean won) is considered to be one of the largest inheritance tax […]
Earlier this month Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed speculation and extended the stamp duty holiday, which had been due to end on 31 March 2021, by three months in an attempt to mitigate the impact of the most recent coronavirus lockdown. The new £500,000 nil rate band will end on 30 June 2021, before it is reduced to […]
What is the new surcharge? New rules introduced by the UK Government mean that overseas buyers of property in the UK will be required to pay an additional 2% tax on top of the current residential SDLT rates. The surcharge is applied on top of: First-time buyer rates; 3% additional dwellings charge; Higher rate applying […]
Rentcharges are found commonly in Bristol, Bath and other cities and originated in the early part of the 19th century or indeed earlier and were a means for builders to develop land without paying a premium to the owner of the Land. Landowners would sell land to Developers at a reduced capital sum or for […]
In our article posted in June 2020 (‘Business Interruption – Is Your Business Covered?’), we explained how the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) were bringing a test case, to establish whether insurers need to pay out on claims for business interruption (‘BI’) caused by the Covid-19 restrictions. BI cover usually forms part of the insurance policy […]
Edit – Unfortunately, due to the National Lockdown announced on 31 October 2020, we have had to postpone our Weekend Wills event. We will announce a new date as soon as possible. There’s only so many hours in the day and sometimes it seems impossible to get everything done. The list of things to do […]
In what has been called the biggest shake-up to Wills in 183 years, The Ministry of Justice has stated that Wills and Codicils which have been witnessed via video conferencing platforms (such as Zoom and Skype) WILL be deemed legal. The statutory instrument enacting this change is due to be enacted in September but the […]
Those thinking about buying or selling property will be keen to hear the the reforms to stamp duty land tax (“SDLT”) which the the Chancellor is expected to announce tomorrow on 8 July 2020. Tomorrow, the Chancellor is due to unveil the latest measures as part of the UK’s Covid-19 recovery. The temporary measures – […]
The rise in divorce rates is sadly a common trend that is seen in times of economic turmoil. Unfortunately, with couples currently being forced to spend unprecedented amounts of time together and with job losses and financial difficulties added to that, more couples will make the choice to separate and divorce. For many people, lockdown […]