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Interpretation of leases: An erroneous construction

Tiffany Scott QC and Charlotte Black interpret the Supreme Court’s reversal of the unanimous Court of Appeal decision on the question of reasonableness in Sequent Nominees ‘The majority held that the courts below had treated the question whether consent had been unreasonably refused as effectively determined by an erroneous construction of the lease.’ In Sequent …
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SDLT anti-avoidance: Cause for concern

Elizabeth Small examines a decision with potential implications for any transactions involving connected or interdependent steps where full SDLT has not been paid ‘Section 75C clearly states that in interpreting the core phrase in s75A regarding the transactions that are involved in connection with the disposal and acquisition (ie the scheme transactions), the transfer of …
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VAT in construction: The reverse charge mechanism

Victoria Redman and Elizabeth Middleton analyse the potential implications of the reverse charge on VAT, which has now been postponed to 2020 ‘If a business receives construction services within the reverse charge scheme, it will now have to pay the VAT charged on those services directly to HMRC, rather than paying the supplier.’ A domestic …
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Japanese knotweed: Untangling the law

Gavin Winter considers the options for private landowners whose property is affected by the growth of Japanese knotweed on neighbouring land ‘It is an accepted position in law that a landowner does not have a duty to report the presence of Japanese knotweed, nor eradicate or treat it in a domestic setting.’ Japanese knotweed (Fallopia …
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Planning update: Where next for stewardship?

Creating communities requires more than just bricks and mortar, as Michele Vas explains ‘With large-scale housing development comes the need to provide appropriate amenity and recreational space.’ The delivery of new homes has for some time now been a key priority for the current government, previous governments and inevitably will remain so for future governments. …
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Construction focus: Residential occupiers beware

Ignorance is no defence when seeking to overturn an adjudicator’s award, as John Starr finds out ‘Mr Pinto argued that it fell into one of those cases where the adjudicator’s reasoning, as it were, was so incoherent and betrayed such a lack of understanding of what the claims were all about that it hardly amounted …
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Book review: Welcome reading

Jayne Elkins reviews a book on positive covenants with continuing relevance to property practitioners It is a long-established principle of English property law that although the burden of restrictive covenants will (if the covenants have been properly drafted) run with the land and bind successors in title of the original covenant, the burden of positive …
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Legislation, consultation and guidance: Where are we now?

David Harris provides a round-up on government response to recent draft reports and consultations as well as other legislative updates ‘A conservation covenant is a voluntary agreement that a landowner enters into with a conservation organisation or public body to do (or not do) something on its land for a conservation purpose.’ Implementing reforms to …
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Debenhams CVA: The landlord strikes back?

Clive Chalkley and Senay Nihat discuss the decision in Debenhams in the context of surrounding case law ‘Landlords feel they have less real voting power as a result of the way in which they are categorised in the standard form of the retail CVA and less voting power leads to less influence as a valuable …
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Planning policy: Labour Party land use and planning proposals

Jane McMenemy and Fiona Sawyer examine potential Labour Party planning policy following publication of a report promoted by the party’s general secretary ‘Whereas consecutive governments have, for decades, turned to developers to deliver housing and infrastructure, “Land for the Many” advocates a swing of control over the use and ownership of land from the private …
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