Legal Updates
Energy Performance Certificates and Commercial Premises
The Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations 2007 requires Landlords and sellers of Commercial Buildings to provide an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) to prospective Buyers and Tenants.
Where buildings are being constructed, the Person carrying out the construction must provide an EPC to the owner of the builder
Empty Property Rates Relief
All non domestic premises are subject to Uniform Business Rates.
Prior to 1st April 2008, any vacant office or retail property was exempt from uniform business rates for a maximum period of 3 months and if the premises continued to remain vacant business rates were then charged at 50%. Industrial property has not enjoyed the same relief and where such property is vacant, empty property rate relief was not available.
Legal Matters - Commercial Newsletter
Click here to read our Summer 2008 edition.
Heptonstalls advise parents to consider Delegated Parental Responsibility (DPR)
Many fathers, step parents and grandparents look after family children on a regular basis, either whilst the mother is at work, or perhaps when the mother is away on holiday.
What happens if the child suffers an injury or becomes ill whilst in the care of relations?
Relatives, including fathers often assume that they will be able to make decisions regarding the welfare of a child in the mothers’ absence. However this is not always the case. Only a person who has parental responsibility for the child can make these decisions, such as discussing schooling issues with the child’s teachers, through to making important medical decisions.
Landlord and Tenant Disputes
Nowadays, being a landlord can be fraught with difficulty. The best and easiest way to protect yourself is to ensure that you have a properly drafted Tenancy Agreement designed to cover all potential future areas of dispute between you and your tenant. What, however, happens when you need to evict your tenant?
Debt Recovery
Debt recovery is a matter likely to concern most businesses at some point in their trading life. It is vital, to maximise cash flow and to ensure profitability, that all bad debts are pursued as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Enduring Power of Attorney - Law Change on 1st October 2007
Heptonstalls LLP are encouraging clients to make an Enduring Power of Attorney before a major Law change in October 2007 replaces the current Enduring Power of Attorney with a Lasting Power of Attorney.
Home Information Packs - Update
Heptonstalls are committed to providing the Government’s controversial Home Information Packs (HIPs)which will become a mandatory part of selling a property from August 1, however the majority of homeowners in the UK are still confused about what the new legislation means for them.
Smoking Ban - Are you Compliant?
From 1st July 2007 it will be illegal to smoke in virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces in England. Failure to comply with the required actions set out by the ban can result in hefty fines – even for businesses who may have already had no smoking policies in place for a number of years.
Read More»Employment Law Focus - Redundancy
There is a redundancy situation if an employee is dismissed because the business as a whole, or the particular workplace where the employee worked, has closed down.Read More »
Controlling your Quality of Life
However much you love life now, would you want to be kept alive by machines if you were unconscious and had no prospect of recovering?Read More »
Companies Act - Are you Prepared? - May 2007
The biggest upheaval in Company Law since 1985 is being phased in over the next two years.
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Do you want to leave your Money to the Tax Man? - April 2007
You've probably seen headlines about Inheritance Tax in the national newspapers. The tax on death has become an extremely expensive issue for a large proportion of the house owning public.
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