Anyone involved in bringing possession proceedings at the moment must be reeling from the number of changes and the amount of new legislation that is being pushed through. You will find yourselves juggling new law, new forms, and new procedures at Court.
Some years ago, the law made it more difficult for freeholders to apply for forfeiture of leases. The Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Act 2002 placed a hurdle in the way of landlords seeking forfeiture due to breaches of the lease.
The Supreme Court has, in June 2020, given judgment on a landmark case which sets out the current state of the law relating to the availability or otherwise of adjudication as a means of dispute resolution when one of the parties is in insolvent liquidation.
Legal judgments are often complex and filled with archaic language, making them difficult for non-lawyers to understand. In a 2015 article, the idea of adding a plain English summary to court judgments was proposed to bridge this gap. Today, with the rise of AI, this concept is more achievable than ever. AI could generate layman-friendly summaries, which judges could then review and approve - enhancing accessibility and public understanding of the law.
In English law, to make a valid will, a testator must have their signature to it witnessed by two adult independent witnesses. The current social distancing measures together with self-isolation to protect the particularly elderly and vulnerable, therefore present a challenge for private client practitioners: how do we ensure that wills are valid when we can’t stand within 2 metres of one another?
Following the Supreme Court decision in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board (2015) the law relating to informed consent has been redefined. Before the change, it was down to the clinician to decide how much information to give a patient (providing that decision would be considered reasonable by a responsible body of medical opinion, the Bolam test). Post Montgomery, clinicians must ensure that their patient is fully informed about any potential risks to the proposed treatment, and of any alternative treatment options.
A recent case about invasive Japanese knotweed has changed the way in which alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is handled. Following the case, relevant parts of the law that previous only allowed courts to encourage ADR have been formally amended, and from October 2024 judges will be able to stop court proceedings and compel parties to engage in ADR.
Considerable column inches have already been devoted to the introduction of The Renters (Reform) Bill with many commentators lamenting that it will hasten the demise of the private landlord. Hailed as the biggest overhaul of residential tenancy law for over thirty years, it seeks to address perceived inequalities in the landlord/tenant relationship.
Adverse possession allows an individual to gain legal ownership of a property by occupying it, without the original owner’s permission, for an extended period. The Land Registration Act 2002 gave landowners a little more control over their properties than they had previously but, as adverse possession is a complex area of property law, advice should be sought from a lawyer with appropriate experience.
The long-awaited decision in this case was handed down by the Supreme Court on 15 March 2017. Unfortunately, it does not provide any of us with the guidance that we had so hoped for and indeed the Supreme Court identify in their judgement “the unsatisfactory state of the present law”. So has this case really been the landmark that it was heralded to be?