Building your own dream home

Shows like Channel 4’s Grand Designs reflect the growing popularity of self-build, which accounts for 13,000 new homes every year in the UK. So, if your dream is to build your own home, should you take the next step towards making it a reality? There are certainly a lot of advantages. Self-build lets you create a home which fits around your lifestyle and individual aesthetic requirements. However, there are many more issues to consider than with a conventional purchase. So, it is especially important to get the right professional advice. What type of self-builder are you? There is no standard definition of self-build, and it can be better to think of it as a spectrum. At one end, those with relevant skills and experience may undertake all the work themselves. At the other, an individual may…

Employment Law Newsletter July 2022

This article covers: 1. Early Conciliation: How to Avoid the Employment Tribunal 2. Part-Time Workers Rights 3. “Wellness” in the Workplace 4. Was Dismissal of Employee Fearful of Covid-19 Fair 1. Early Conciliation: How to Avoid the Employment Tribunal The obvious route to avoid the employment tribunal is for employees and employers to discuss workplace issues as they arise and to resolve them before they become disputes. However if informal workplace conversations or more formal approaches such as a grievance procedure don’t work, employers can find themselves facing a claim in the employment tribunal. The question is, how to avoid the claim being heard, in public, in the employment tribunal. Before commencing a claim in the employment tribunal the employee must inform Acas – please note strict time limits apply at every stage so don’t delay…

Who pays private school fees after divorce or separation?

According to the Financial Times the average fee for independent schools is now over £15,000 a year for day pupils and £36,000 for boarders. This represents a substantial financial commitment over the education of a child, and often has to be taken into account when negotiating a financial settlement after divorce or separation. Disputes can arise for many reasons, perhaps parents have different priorities or maybe one parent is finding it harder to cope with paying school fees and all the extra costs. ‘Perhaps one of the largest bones of contention between separated parents when it comes to their children’s schooling is how the school fees will be paid,’ says our family law team expert at Ware & Kay in York & Wetherby.  ‘Often, even prior to separation, parents have made sacrifices in order to pay…

Summer 2022, employment law update

This year’s Queen’s Speech was surprisingly light on employment law developments, with the omission of the long-awaited Employment Bill. However, the last few months have seen a couple of announcements from the Government regarding the future of work, data protection, exclusivity clauses and the menopause which employers need to be aware of, and tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal decisions continue to provide interesting reading, including decisions in the context of Covid-19. Kalpesh Nakeshree, Head of Employment Law with Ware & Kay, provides a round up of recent developments for employers. Whatever happened to the Employment Bill? The Employment Bill was proposed in 2019, and the Government has indicated several times that it would bring in changes such as extending redundancy protection for new parents and pregnant women and a new right to neonatal leave, as well…