As an employer the wellbeing of your staff will be a key priority. Staff absences can pose a particular challenge; on top of concern for your employees, they can lead to greater pressure on colleagues, additional expense and, if you get it wrong, could even lead to a legal claim. Having an effective absence policy can help you deal fairly and lawfully with both long and short-term absences.

Making a Lasting Power of Attorney may seem like a task for another day, but as time goes on, our ability to manage our affairs may decrease or be prevented by an unexpected illness or accident. By making sure that you have the documents in place, and registered, this helps to ensure that a trusted person can step in to assist you when you need it most.

Visit high streets in some parts of England and you will find a lot of empty shops. They can look unattractive, make the public less inclined to venture into their local shopping area and, like a vicious cycle, this then adversely impacts on the businesses clinging on to survival.

As an animal owner, you may have thought about - or even experienced - your animals escaping and causing damage to property or even injuring someone. Have you ever worried about your liability for damage caused by your animals? Our latest insight provides advice to animal owners on this Act which is notoriously difficult to interpret.

What better time is there than mid - February, just as the over-priced flowers and fluffy bears appear on shop shelves, to show some love for a much under-appreciated part of any commercial landlord or tenant’s life - the lease!

A covenant is the legal term for a promise, usually not to do something on your land (a negative or restrictive covenant) but occasionally to do something (a positive covenant).

The Family Court is under immense pressure. The number of court applications, including issues relating to finances on divorce or separation of an unmarried couple and arrangements for children are rising each year. Cases are taking longer to conclude and very often experiencing delays in listing hearings and, as is happening more frequently, hearings are being moved or even cancelled at short notice due to judicial unavailability.

Adverse possession is all about claiming someone else’s land as your own on the basis of your possession of it for a period designated by law. Of course, not all kinds of occupation lead to eventual ownership.

Land is a great asset to have - I don’t think anyone would dispute that. But by the same token owning land (like having money) can be a worry as well. If you are lucky and your land has clearly identified boundaries and so long as there is no argument about them, all is well. That is the case for most land but some people are not quite so lucky. Boundary disputes can be a headache, especially if not well handled from the start.

Following the recent discussion on new social housing reforms, which was published on 30 January 2024, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities has declared an eight-week consultation period on a proposed standard for competence and conduct in social housing.

A drive around any country lane will demonstrate that rural landowners have a real entrepreneurial spirit. Everything from farm shops to glamping sites to alpaca trekking have been popping up and they can bring good commercial returns.

Today the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities announced a consultation on new social housing reforms. The proposed consultation has raised a number of concerns around the fact that a large majority of social housing already goes to UK nationals, the proposal would introduce even stricter rules, awarding social housing to those that can prove a close connection to the UK and local area as a priority.