A group of retirement housing developers are celebrating after their successful judicial review challenge which determined that the viability re-appraisal requirements in the Mayoral Affordable Housing and Viability SPG are unlawful for short-term schemes.
The Mayoral SPG requires every site yielding affordable housing below 35% on-site to undertake an early and a late stage viability review in addition to the initial appraisal at the planning application stage.
This article looks at the current fire safety regulations in respect of residential property in England. There is no single item of legislation that applies but rather a myriad of regulations which have arisen over the years. Some apply to all dwellings where as others will apply only to certain parts of buildings or to certain types of occupation. The recent tragedy at Grenfell Tower will also likely instigate an overhaul of fire safety measures.
After a hugely successful inaugural year, Forsters partner Emily Exton recently co-produced the second annual "Fresh Perspectives" contentious trusts conference, held at the W Hotel in Barcelona. Emily organised the conference in partnership with Andrea Zavos (Boodle Hatfield), Roberta Harvey (Charles Russell Speechlys), Maxine Mossman (Clifford Chance), Jenny McKeown (Stephenson Harwood), Helena Berman (Stephenson Harwood) and Emma Jordan (Taylor Wessing).
"It is not a ground for divorce that you find yourself in a wretchedly unhappy marriage, though some people say that it should be."
These comments by the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, strike at the heart of the case of Owens v Owens, which reached the Supreme Court on 17 May. The appeal concerns the proper approach to divorce proceedings and whether the relevant legislation has been constructed correctly in the lower court's refusal to grant Mrs Owens the divorce she seeks.
Minimum energy efficiency standards (“MEES”) are now in force.
Any landlord or agent worth their salt will be only too aware of potential pitfalls when serving Section 21 notices to end Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) in a post-Deregulation Act age.
On Thursday, 26 April, Montagu Evans hosted the “Next Episode” in the series of Forsters LLP/ Montagu Evans knowledge sharing events. Previously, Josh Myerson and Mark Higgin had shared their business rates insight and experience with Forsters’ real estate departments and it was Forsters’ turn to return the favour.
On 12 April 2018, the consultation on the 1st edition of the RICS professional statement: Code for leasing business premises (the “Revised Code”) closed. The Revised Code is set to replace the current voluntary 2007 Code for Leasing Business Premises in England and Wales (the “2007 Code”). Whilst the consultation may give rise to some changes, assuming the Revised Code broadly remains as proposed, what are the key points for surveyors to note?
In their Business Strategy report, 2017-2022, the Land Registry say that it is their ambition to become the world's leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data. They say that their customers "who include citizens, financial institutions, lawyers and developers" will continue to be central to everything they do and that they will transform the customer experience through their digital services and improved use of technology, making transactions instantaneous where possible.
"Best endeavours", "reasonable endeavours" and "all reasonable endeavours" are terms often used in contracts but perhaps not fully understood. Whilst most contractual obligations are expressed to be absolute, an endeavour is an agreement to try to fulfil an obligation. They will be used where a party is unwilling to agree to something absolutely.
There are three often used types of endeavour, each with a varied level of commitment:
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