Off-payroll legislative reform comes into force 6 April 2021 for medium to large businesses. For further details see the Contracts for employment section in our Employment Law – Non-contentious commentary.

New precedents have been added to the By Lawyers Family and Debt Recovery publications: The Family Court – Court bundle cover page and spine and Family Court – Court bundle index have been added to the Financial Remedy and Private Child Arrangements guides. The County Court, High Court and Appeal Court – Trial bundle cover page and County Court, High Court and Appeal Court – Trial bundle index have been added to the Debt Recovery guides. The precedents are customised for each court and comply with each court's requirements. The precedents will assist practitioners to create an indexed collection of documents that the parties rely on during the hearing. A properly compiled and indexed court bundle or trial bundle allows solicitors, counsel and the bench to easily navigate the matter.

The Purchase of Property commentary has been updated to include two new cases of note. Alexander Devine Children's Cancer Trust v Housing Solutions Ltd [2020] UKSC 45 is an interesting case on the pitfalls of asking for forgiveness rather than permission. A developer built thirteen affordable houses on a piece of land which was encumbered by a restrictive covenant preventing the construction work. While the public interest benefit of the houses was clear, so was the conduct of the developer in proceeding without covenant consent. Planning permission had been obtained, but of course this is no guarantee of lawfulness. The developers lost their application under s 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925 to have the covenant disapplied, proving that restrictive covenants should be ignored at a purchaser’s peril. Fiander & Anor v Revenue & Customs [2020] UKFTT 190 (TC) is a heartening case for practitioners who are worried about multiple dwellings relief being incorrectly applied to stamp duty land tax. Claims handlers are actively approaching home-owners with offers of running negligence claims against conveyancers who may have failed to apply this relief on their client’s behalf when properties may qualify. This case makes it clear that establishing a ‘separate dwelling’ is not as easy as some clients may believe.

To assist practitioners working in Debt Recovery – Acting for the claimant, we have published a Debt statement which brings together details of the debt, interest and costs, as well as the payments that have been made towards it. This will be especially useful where payment plans have been agreed with debtors and is designed to work alongside the Invoice, Debt details and Payment tables within LEAP. 1. Insert the debt details in an Invoice table – add another invoice by right clicking on the existing one to record more than one debt amount if required. 2. Insert interest and costs details in the top half of the Debt details table. 3. Insert payment details into a Payments table each time a payment is received – add another payment by right clicking on the existing one. 4. Provided the above information has been entered into LEAP, the Debt statement will be complete. If the information is incorrect, amend the LEAP tables and use the update button in the LEAP ribbon tab to update the document. This document can be produced as many times as necessary to provide successive statements. An accompanying Letter to debtor enclosing debt statement has also been published. Adding these new precedents is part of By Lawyers continuing commitment to enhancing our content and helping our subscribers enjoy practice more.

Legislation coming into force will permit wills to be executed and witnessed using video-link facilities. Whilst the legislation is not yet in force, it is anticipated that it will have retrospective effect, meaning that wills executed using video-conferencing since 21 January 2020 will be valid if the correct process was followed. Read more...

By Lawyers have published an article with a summary of the options for signing documents when meetings are not possible. Practitioners may find this useful due to the government ‘lockdown’ measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article can be found here.

Temporary rent concessions for commercial leases – Side letter or deed of variation? A side letter which records the agreed temporary alteration to the existing lease, and which is not intended to have a lasting impact upon the lease terms. Read more...

The By Lawyers Mortgages Guide has been reviewed and updated to ensure that the commentaries and precedents are in line with current law and conveyancing practice. Read more...

From the 10th January 2020, the 5th Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) will come into force. In support of these new compliance requirements, By Lawyers has made several precedent amendments. In particular the Client Details and Verifying Identity precedent now recommends an electronic identification verification process but continues to support a manual process should that be necessary. Practitioners can elect whether the client has passed the verification successfully or whether the client details have been passed on to the AML Officer for enhanced due diligence. For manual verification practitioners are able to record an acknowledgment that identity documents were produced personally, and the photographic ID was a good likeness of the person producing them. Other changes include: The precedent now captures sex and nationality detail; and Politically exposed persons (PEP) are covered in greater depth with a number of suggested searches firms should be undertaking. The details about a PEP client can be recorded on the precedent along with the provision for a senior partner to authorise the firm to act. The retainer instructions have also been amended to include an acknowledgement that the instructions relate to a PEP and require a senior partner to authorise the firm to act.

The By Lawyers Domestic Violence publication has been reviewed and updated by our authors as part of our continuing review process. This review saw the commentary in particular enriched with a deeper more practical approach to running such a matter.

Additions to the Sale and Purchase of Land commentaries have analysed the law and practice in relation to boundaries to assist practitioners who are called upon to prepare boundary agreements or to seek the determination of a boundary. Read more...

The commentary in the Mortgages guide now includes an analysis of the applicability of regulation of private lending under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 and the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer

A summary of the rules and responsibilities for client money has been included in the Practice Management guide. They are expressed as a straightforward and easily understood appreciation of the essential obligations and professional responsibility when handling client money.

The National Police Chief’s Council, has issued new operational guidance for pre-charge bail and release under investigation. The guidance follows changes to pre-charge bail under the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and is in response to concerns in domestic abuse and high harm cases, including sexual offences and offences involving vulnerable people. Read more...

From 1 March 2019 the time limit for filing stamp duty land tax returns and making payments was reduced from 30 days to 14 days. This affected residential and commercial properties. Please note the 30-day limit continues to apply where a further return is required.