Fraudsters Be Warned – Land Registry seeks to protect Landlords and Non Resident Home Owners.

The Land Registry have recently taken steps to introduce a 6 month initiative to aid property owners in protecting their empty or tenanted properties being sold or mortgaged fraudulently. Non resident or absent property owners are being encouraged to register a new Form LL restriction against the title to their property for which there is no land registry fee. The restriction requires a conveyancer’s certificate confirming that person selling or mortgaging the property is the true owner.  This will provide invaluable protection to Landlords and indeed owners living abroad or in care homes or where properties have been left empty as they are the amongst the most likely to fall victim to fraud.

The new procedure for safeguarding property is subject to a 6 month trial period but is not appropriate to use for owner occupiers, corporate Landlords, commercial premises or developments.

If you require any further information please contact Ms M Nagra in our property team. 

Employment: Possession Nine-Tenths of the Law?

The benefits of Compromise Agreements are well known to most these days.  They enable in a time efficient and economic way the great majority of any potential issues between employer and employee to be resolved.

What happens however when the money starts to run out?

Without doubt these are worrying times for employers and employees alike and redundancy seems to be a phrase on every employer and employee’s lips.  We, as Brighton Employment Lawyers, have as a consequence seen a significant increase in the number of Compromise Agreements concluding in a co-operative way, the issues regarding termination of employment and severance packages by employers.  In these troubling times however it can often be a symptom that an employer is in such major financial difficulties that it calls into question their ability to make payment of those sums due to an employee under any Compromise Agreement.  We are seeing an increasing need in order to counter these concerns to take receipt of all monies due to an employee as compensation for loss of office in advance of concluding the Compromise Agreement and holding such monies to the employer’s order until completion of negotiations.

If you have any concerns regarding your proposed Compromise Agreement, or if you are an employer and are worried about a potential redundancy situation affecting your employees, please contact either Brian Donnan or Alex Watson.