Is now a good time for first-time buyers?

  If you are looking to own your first home, you may wonder whether or not now is a good time to buy. On the one hand, the increase in property prices seems finally to have stalled. On the other, living costs and interest rates have risen sharply. Add to this the uncertain economic outlook, and it is hard to decide what to do for the best. Nobody knows for certain what the future holds. For most people, their home is a long-term commitment, and it is important to see things in perspective. Whether you decide to buy now, or to wait, there is a lot to consider. We outline some of the key considerations for first-time buyers. Plan your finances well in advance Building up savings can reduce the amount you need to borrow and…

Employment law risks when keeping clients happy

The client is king and businesses will usually do anything they can to keep and grow clients, but not everyone is committed to increasing diversity and inclusion at the same pace. This can create some tricky dilemmas. Should an employer accommodate a client’s discriminatory preferences? And does the employer have a duty to protect employees from discriminatory clients? ‘Employers can sometimes find themselves in the difficult position of wanting to keep a client happy, but also needing to protect their employees. The law in this area is a mix of seemingly contradictory provisions,’ says Kalpesh Nakeshree, Head of Employment Law with Ware & Kay in York, Wetherby & Malton. Kalpesh offers guidance and practical tips for dealing with this type of scenario and he also looks at the potential impact of clients rewarding diversity and…

A record amount of charity donations were included in Wills in 2022

According to recent data, 2022 saw a record amount of bequests to charities. Of the 231,582 wills that Smee & Ford handled, 36,992, or nearly 16%, contained a gift to a charity. The overall amount of charitable estates was higher than Smee & Ford's forecast of £20 billion from September, coming in at £21.3 billion, the highest amount ever. The total number of individual bequests within charitable estates awarded probate in 2022—123,298 in England and Wales—was also the highest amount ever recorded. Over half of all legacy revenue in 2022 came from high-value bequests worth over £100k, with 31% of bequests valued at over half a million pounds and another 22% coming from bequests valued between £100-£250k. “It is encouraging to see that 2022 was another strong year for legacy income and that the number of…

Saint Catherine's Hospice Make a Will Week 17 April to 21 April, 2023

We are delighted to support the Saint Catherine’s Hospice Make a Will Week.We have agreed to give our time and expertise for free to support Saint Catherine’s Hospice Make a Will Week Catherine’s Hospice Make a Will Week. We will happily meet with you to take your instructions for a simple Will during this week and draft a professional Will in accordance with those instructions. We will also meet with you again for your Will to be signed by the end of May 2023. In return, you will make a donation to Saint Catherine’s. Our suggested minimum is £200* per single Will and £350* per matching pair. This is payable at the time you sign your Will with us and we will forward the donation to Saint Catherine’s Catherine’s. *If your Will requires advice of a complex nature, or because of any failure on your own part to complete the Will by…

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…

The UK's most affordable locations for first-time homebuyers

More than six out of ten first-time purchasers in the UK shared the cost of the average home, which increased 13% to £302,010 last year. According to a new Halifax analysis, the number of first-time buyers decreased by 11% to 362,461 in 2022 from the year before. With average prices hovering around £171,425, Northern Ireland has continued to be the cheapest location to buy a home since 2017. The North East region was next, with houses costing on average £175,091. Unsurprisingly, London, where the typical house cost £518,900, was on the higher end of the scale. The average down payment for a home in the capital was £125,378; this amount would almost have been sufficient to purchase a home elsewhere in the UK. Scotland saw the biggest increase in the amount needed for a deposit, going…

Is a prenup part of your wedding planning?

Hotels and wedding venues are busy hosting wedding fairs and gearing up for the wedding season, with everyone focused on the details of the big day, from the colour scheme and menu to the choice of attendants and music. One other thing which now appears on a wedding checklist is discussion of a prenuptial agreement, especially when it is a second marriage, if there are business interests, or where the ‘Bank of Mum & Dad’ is helping with a deposit for a property. Nobody plans a wedding with separation in mind, but according to the Office for National Statistics, in 2021 the most common duration of marriage for opposite-sex couples was 8 years, for male same-sex couples it was 5 years; and for female same-sex couples it was 4 years. ‘A prenuptial agreement provides a…