Why you need a specialist conveyancer when buying or selling rural property

05 July 2021 Farming & Agriculture

Many people wrongly assume that buying or selling agricultural property is much the same as any other conveyance. In reality, a property transaction involving farmland can be a complicated and taxing process with many elements to consider. We outline below some of the pitfalls involved in purchasing or selling agricultural property and explain why you should engage us as your specialist conveyancer to guide you through the process. The conveyance of agricultural land requires all the usual checks and searches that are needed for non-agricultural property, such as title investigations at the Land Registry, checks for existing easements (rights of way) and planning permissions, as well as local authority, environmental, and water and drainage searches. In addition, agricultural land conveyancing often requires a whole host of extra investigations, such as: Wayleave agreements – are there…

Is now the right time to extend the lease on your home?

05 July 2021 Residential property

If your home is leasehold, you could soon find it cheaper and easier to extend the term of your lease. This will usually make your property more valuable and, depending on how many years your lease has left, it can also make it easier to remortgage and more marketable when you come to sell. As part of its reform of the leasehold property regime, the Government plans to improve the statutory mechanism for lease extensions. Here Ware & Kay looks at the latest proposals and considers your options if you are a leaseholder. If you purchased a house or an apartment on a leasehold basis then, unlike with a freehold property, you do not own it outright. Instead, you have the right to occupy for a specific number of years (the term) and over time the…

Key employment cases regarding coronavirus and Supreme Court decisions

05 July 2021 Employment advice

Despite the success of the vaccine programme, the impact of the pandemic on businesses will continue for some time. For example, when the furlough scheme ends in the autumn, it is expected that the number of employment tribunal claims will rise and case law will take even longer to filter through to policies and practice. ‘Meanwhile, we are starting to see tribunal cases relating to the Covid risk in the workplace and, so far, the outcomes are generally encouraging for employers,’ says Gillian Reid, a Solicitor in the employment team with Ware & Kay. ‘Although these are only tribunal decisions and other tribunals do not have to follow them, they offer some reassurance to those employers who have brought in Covid-secure measures.’ In our latest round-up of key employment law cases, Gillian Reid also looks at…

The future of the workplace and hybrid working

11 June 2021 Employment advice

The official government message encouraging people to work from home is expected to end with the final step out of lockdown. For many employees though, homeworking is here to stay. According to a recent BBC survey, 43 of 50 big UK employers will not bring staff back to the office full time. Instead, employees will mix homeworking and coming into the office. For businesses considering hybrid working, Gillian Reid, Head of Employment with Ware & Kay explains how to build on the lessons learned during the pandemic, as well as practical and contractual issues to consider and pitfalls to avoid. Feedback and reflection A really worthwhile exercise is to find out from employees about their experience of homeworking. This can be done through an anonymous survey, team meetings or employee representative groups. Important questions include which…

Do adult children living at home have rights over the matrimonial house in a divorce?

08 June 2021 Family Matters

Recent research by Loughborough University shows a sharp rise in the so-called ‘boomerang’ generation of young adults returning to live at home until their late twenties or early thirties. This trend has continued as a result of the pandemic causing job losses, furlough, and university closures. ‘With the shape of family life changing, we are seeing an increase in queries about whether adult children living at home have any rights in a divorce,’ says Robert Bellhouse, a Solicitor in the family law team with Ware & Kay in York & Wetherby. ‘The law makes a number of provisions to ensure minor children continue to be cared and provided for following divorce, but more recently the children living at home are older. Unlike a tenant or lodger, there is unlikely to be any legal formalities in place…

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