Restrictive covenants revisited

In a recent case before the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) Housing Solutions v Smith [decision 27 January 2023] the Tribunal allowed the applicant's application for the modification of restrictive covenants which restricted use of a site to parking of cars so as to permit housing development. Mr John Smith (founder of the Landmark Trust) owned a large area of agricultural land just outside Maidenhead. Adjoining it was a small industrial estate, whose owner, Stainless Steel Profile Cutters Limited (“SSPCL”) wanted to construct a car park; the layout of the estate provided a convenient triangle, and in 1972 Mr John Smith sold to SSPCL a further triangle so as to make a rectangle, known as the “Exchange House site”. In the conveyance SSPCL gave restrictive covenants for the benefit of Mr John Smith’s adjoining land which provided…

Reducing farm payroll: lay-offs or redundancy?

Times are tough for UK farmers at present, with high energy prices and the cost-of-living crisis combining with the aftermath of Brexit and the pandemic to force many farming families to tighten their belts. One obvious way of saving costs is to reduce staffing numbers, with lay-offs, short-time working or redundancy all possible options. Kalpesh Nakeshree Head of Employment Law at Ware & Kay in York, Wetherby & Malton, outlines the legalities and potential pitfalls of these courses of action. Lay-offs and short-time working If you need to reduce your staff-count for only a short period, you could consider laying off an employee. This involves asking them to stay home or take unpaid leave until you need them on the workforce again. Alternatively, you can ask your employee to agree to short-time working, which sees…

Gary Lineker – No more Mr Nice guy?

What did Mr Lineker Tweet? Gary Lineker recently caused a political storm when he compared the current UK asylum policy to 1930s Germany. Mr Lineker Tweeted that the language in which the plan was set out was ‘’not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30’s’’ and referred to the policy as ‘’beyond awful’’. Why was this controversial? The BBC (his employer) has impartiality guidelines. He is one of their highest profile stars and receives his circa £1.8M salary from us the taxpayer. As a result the BBC felt the need to have a ‘’frank conversation’’ reminding him of his ‘’responsibilities.’’ As a gentleman on the radio said yesterday ‘’why should he spout politics? He should stick to football and flogging crisps. I don’t pay his salary to listen to his views on immigration’’. Mr…

Can you really have a clean break after divorce?

Many people mistakenly believe that a divorce severs your financial ties, but that is not the case. It is necessary to either agree your financial arrangements via a separate negotiation and have the settlement formalised by the court, or have the court decide how your finances should be divided. Each couple’s circumstances will be different and will determine the options available, with some people happy to maintain ongoing connections and other people keen to make a clean break. ‘While an emotional clean break from your former spouse may be harder to achieve, it is possible to achieve a clean break in a legal and financial sense,’ says Robert Bellhouse, family law expert at Ware & Kay in York & Wetherby. A clean break order can be made by the court after divorce to ensure that you…