Former Trinity pupil Stefano Passantino has literally started a new career ‘Chapter’ by including clothes by Leamington designers at his new men’s clothing shop in the town’s Park Street, labelled by many as ‘Warwickshire’s ‘Bond Street.’

Working with Leamington law firm Blythe Liggins, Chapter in Park Street is now open for business and features men’s clothing from Britain, Scandinavia, Italy and Scotland, and now includes local brands Humdrum and Soul 7, created by fledgling Leamington designers.

Stefano, who has previously managed independent clothing shops, including Venue in Leamington for four years, said his goal was to retail good quality clothes at sensible prices. “We have a good mix of everyday clothing to suit everyone from 15 years to 65 years. There’s something for everybody, both brand and non-branded clothes,” he said. “The Leamington designers, and one in Birmingham, are used to selling online, but I liked their clothes so much, I offered them the opportunity to sell through the store. It is good for them and for me because it makes Chapter both different and affordable.” said Stefano.

Commercial lawyer Nick Watts from Blythe Liggins, who handled the property issues to enable Stefano to operate from the store, said: “Park Street has become one of the most fashionable shopping areas in Leamington with lots of top quality, independent retailers. Chapter is the latest addition to this now boutique street, and we wish Stefano every success in growing the business and supporting local designers.”

CAPTION: Suits you sir…..Nick Watts of Blythe Liggins and Stefano Passantino

Issued by Newsline PR. Tel: 01926 888308

A Grade 2 listed Victorian landmark building in the centre of Leamington is set for a 21st century makeover as luxury high-tech apartments.

With the support of Leamington law firm Blythe Liggins, the former offices on the corner of Waterloo Place have been empty for a number of years after an established firm of solicitors relocated their headquarters to larger out-of -town premises.

The building, which includes an original Victorian wrought iron balcony around the first floor, has been purchased by Leamington developers Hatchback Ltd, which has a large portfolio of commercial and residential properties, including the former Law Society building at Victoria Court on Dormer Place which is now home for TATA Steel, the owners of Jaguar Land Rover and games giant SEGA.

Hardeep Malle, managing director of Hatchback Ltd, said: “We have very ambitious plans to convert this splendid building into 13 luxury apartments which will each have some additional high-tech features providing a contemporary feel to this listed landmark building.

“It has been empty for many years which is why we want to bring it back to its former glory, as well as provide superb three, two and one-bedroomed accommodation with residential parking. Leamington is a much sought-after location and these homes will be attractive to people who already live here and to those looking to re-locate to this smart spa town,” added Mr Malle who has taken over the reins of the business from his father, Shalbinder Singh Malle, who founded Hatchback more than 30 years ago.

Tim Lester, a partner at Blythe Liggins who handled the conveyancing, has fond memories as a former employee at the law firm that previously occupied the building.“It is great to see that this lovely building where I spent my formative years and also met my wife, is being brought back to life by a Leamington-based company that has built a strong reputation in the area,” he said.

CAPTION: Tim Lester of Blythe Liggins with Hardeep Malle outside the Waterloo Place building

Question: Three years ago my husband and I lent our son and his wife £50,000 to buy a house for their family. Now my son is getting divorced can we get our money back?

Answer: With house prices making it really difficult for the first time buyer to get on the housing ladder more and more parents are helping their children set up home but often the parents are helping not just their own child but also their child’s partner or spouse.

Sadly too the rate of separation and divorce continues to rise and so when making the investment parents should carefully consider the nature of the support they are offering and how they should protect themselves if at a later date they want to get their money (or perhaps a percentage share in the value of the property) back.

If there is no documentary record the Court may have to ultimately have to decide whether the investment was a loan which would be recoverable or a gift which would not be. If the investment is a loan what are the terms of the loan, is interest payable, do the parents have a share in the equity of the property and if they do how is that share to be calculated?

In most cases generous parents wanting to help their children seem not to consider the consequences if things go wrong and this will often mean that the investment is treated as a gift to the child and his partner which cannot be recovered. All too often this will not have been in the contemplation of the parents when making the investment.

If any readers are planning to help their children in this way it is vital that proper legal agreements are put in so that all parties know where they stand and unhappiness, uncertainty and the cost of expensive court proceedings are avoided.

CAPTION: Richard Thornton. Senior Partner, Dispute Resolution Team

Only the very simplest of Wills should be drawn up without the aid of a solicitor or other professional adviser. One of the problems with homemade Wills is not only recognising whether your situation is really as straightforward as you think but also making sure that the Will fulfils all of the legal requirements. There are specific witnessing requirements for Wills and rules about who should or shouldn’t witness a Will. Another important factor that people often fail to recognise is that Wills made before marriage are automatically revoked by marriage unless specifically drafted in contemplation of marriage. Even the simplest of Wills will be held invalid if the legal requirements are not followed.

There is more to a Will than simply disposing of assets. For example, you will need to consider who will be executors and how money will be looked after if, for example, children are too young to inherit outright on your death. You may also need Inheritance Tax advice at the point of making a Will. Of course not everyone will have a big enough estate to have to worry about Inheritance Tax liabilities but owing to the increase in house prices in recent years, some people are slipping over the tax thresholds without necessarily being aware of this.

A valid Will is the only way to ensure that your possessions and assets pass to whom you want them to go to and if there are problems with the drafting formalities of the Will then your wishes may not be carried out. If it is found that your Will is incorrectly executed or does not dispose of all of your assets, the distribution of the estate or of the remaining assets is left to the operation of the Law. Many people think that their husband or wife will automatically inherit everything but this is a common misconception. The situation is even worse for unmarried couples and it doesn’t matter how long they have been together, an unmarried partner does not automatically have a right to the estate.

These are only some of the factors that you should bear in mind when preparing a Will and it is always sensible to seek professional assistance.

CAPTION: Donna Bothamley. Partner, Wills & Probate Team

The personal injury market has suffered a big image crisis over the last few years with claims companies springing up all over the place and men in tents accosting you on street corners to ask whether your limp is accident related! As a result, people can often be reticent in approaching a solicitor as they fear that they will be criticised by their peers for being greedy or claim obsessed.

Indeed, many argue that England is adopting America’s ‘Compensation Culture’ and that nowadays people can sue for tripping over a matchstick. They call for a return to the good old days when an accident was no more than that – just an accident.

So have times changed and is the English law on compensation taking a turn for the worse? Absolutely not. The law of negligence is hundreds of years old and the basic principles have not greatly changed, save for the need to deal with modern problems and events. You simply cannot get compensation for a genuine accident which was just unfortunate and nobody’s fault, however bad your injuries.

In order to succeed with a claim against another person you will have to firstly show that they owed you a duty of care. By way of example, a driver owes a duty of care to all other road users and pedestrians. You then have to show that the person owing you the duty of care has breached that duty. Thus, the driver has pulled out of a side road without giving way and has collided with your car. He owed you a duty as a fellow road user to drive with care and reasonable caution and he has clearly breached that duty by pulling out when it was unsafe to do so. Finally, you have to show that you have sustained an injury as a direct result of the other person’s breach of duty.

If all of these elements can be proved – remember that the onus is on the claimant to prove their case – then your claim will succeed. You should not feel guilty about submitting a claim for compensation for injuries sustained as you have a legal right, deep rooted in history, to make such a claim. People have to be responsible for their actions and innocent parties should not bear physical and financial upheaval unnecessarily.

An accident may leave a person so badly injured that they cannot work again and it will be necessary for them to seek compensation not only for their injury but also for the years ahead without any income. Why should they suffer this burden themselves when their demise was down to the neglect of another?

The law in America is different to the law of this country and each state can have their own set of rules and laws, leading to wide divergence even within the country. I cannot see a day when people will be allowed by English courts to make spurious claims and I shall continue to encourage people with genuine claims to pursue them with their heads held high. The right to be compensated when you have been wronged should never be taken away from you.

CAPTION: Claire Kirwan. Partner, Personal Injury and Medical Negligence Team

It is currently possible on divorce for a wife to substitute her National Insurance records for that of her former husband’s. Such a substitution would not affect her former husband’s entitlement to state pension but it would generally ensure that both parties would have the same basic state pension following divorce. In order to take advantage of this substitution, a former wife has to make a formal application to the DWP and submit proof (usually a copy of her Decree Absolute).

However, this substitution will no longer be available for those wives reaching pension age after 2016 irrespective of the date of their divorce. This means that a former wife would be left with a lower state pension income on retirement. Quite often this arises because she has simply taken time out in order to raise the children and look after the home or only worked part time for part of the marriage. As a consequence a wife probably only paid a reduced stamp (known as the married women’s stamp which was abolished in 1977) or made no contribution at all.

There are a number of transitional arrangements proposed to lessen the impact on certain individuals, one of which affects married women who, prior to 1977, exercised her right to pay a reduced married women’s stamp. By its very nature it is only going to affect a small number of people, but there will be a few to who this applies to.

The relevant date will not be the date of the petition or Decree Absolute but the date upon which the wife reaches state pension age after 2016.

There are also further proposed changes in that the government is going to also withdraw the ability to share Additional State Pension. Although basic state pension cannot be split, it has been possible in the past to split any Additional State Pension. Any such orders to split the Additional State Pension made before the new Pensions Act becomes law should be honoured. This means that there is a deadline on these types of orders, which is likely to be April 2017.

CAPTION: Louise Sheasby. Chartered Legal Executive, Family Team

The answer to this frequently asked question is that there may be no answer. The only certain way of knowing who owns a hedge or fence standing on the boundary of a property is if its ownership is stated in the Land Registry register entries for the property or in the title deeds if the property is not registered.

Often ownership, or responsibility for the repair of a boundary feature, may be expressly stated in the deeds or sometimes it is indicated by reference to a plan which would show “T” marks along the boundary edges of the property. If the “T” mark is pointing inwards towards the property then the boundary in question belongs to that property.

It is certainly usually the case that for all properties constructed since around 1980, ownership of the boundaries will be indicated either by reference to “T” marks on the plan attached to the first Conveyance or Transfer of the property or by that Conveyance or Transfer specifically stating that the ownership of a particular boundary is “party”, i.e. shared jointly between the owners of the properties which the boundary separates.

With older properties it is not at all unusual for the deeds to be silent on the question of who owns a particular boundary. Reference would then need to be made to information provided by the previous owners of the property at the time of the sale. The standard Sellers Property Information Form completed by all sellers during the conveyancing process contains questions as to the ownership and past maintenance of the boundaries. However, if the deeds are silent on ownership, then clearly the reply of the seller as to who owns a particular boundary will only be his or her own opinion of the position and will not necessarily be correct.

The question of maintenance of a boundary fence can be relevant because if a fence has been erected by a previous owner then the fence belongs to that owner and all subsequent owners of the property.

It is sometimes assumed that a fence belongs to the property which has the structural side of the fence closest to it. This is however not necessarily the case and this assumption has no basis in law.

If a boundary consists of a hedge and ditch then there is a legal presumption that a property boundary will be on the opposite side of the ditch from the hedge. The reasoning behind this is that when the hedge was planted, the owner would have stood on the boundary line, then dug the ditch on his own land up to the boundary, formed a bank on his land with the soil from the ditch and then planted a hedge on that bank of soil. This is, however, only a presumption and it can be overridden by evidence to show that the hedge itself forms the boundary line in the deeds.

The overriding factor in determining ownership is the evidence that can be obtained from the Land Registry Entries or title deeds to a property and if these are silent then in the vast majority of cases neighbours just agree to share equally the cost of any necessary repairs.

CAPTION: Tim Lester. Partner, Residential Property Team

A Settlement Agreement is a document which records an agreement between you and your employer. It is a legal requirement that you seek independent advice on the Agreement and you must consult with a solicitor in this regard. You cannot use the same solicitor as your employer and so you will need to check first of all whether the solicitor has represented your employer in the past.

Once you have selected a solicitor, you should provide your employer with their contact details and your employer can forward the proposed Agreement to your solicitor or you can give the Agreement to your solicitor direct, if you already have a copy.

The solicitor will then meet with you to go through the Agreement (this is another legal requirement). If it is not possible to meet then alternative arrangements can be made. Your solicitor will need to see a copy of your employment contract (if you have one) together with any other correspondence relating to your employment or to the Agreement itself. At the end of the meeting you can decide whether you wish to sign the Agreement, go back to your employer with proposed changes or decide not to enter into the Agreement at all.

Normally your employer would contribute to your legal costs in seeking legal advice on the Agreement itself.

Richard Moon has advised on a multitude of Settlement Agreements so contact him on (01926) 884745 or rhm@blytheliggins.co.uk.

CAPTION: Richard Moon. Partner, Employment Team

Family lawyers across the country are bracing themselves for a large influx of divorce instructions. September is notoriously known as a busy time for family lawyers.

Family Lawyer Louise Sheasby comments, “The increase can be attributed to a number of factors. Couples have pinned their hopes on rekindling their relationship during their summer holiday. But couples have returned home disappointed and disillusioned”.

Miss Sheasby adds “If you are contemplating divorce you should ask yourself if you have exhausted all other avenues, such as marriage guidance counselling. Divorce is a big step. It may just compound money worries as finances may be further stretched by supporting two households rather than one”.

If there is really no other solution Miss Sheasby recommends that you appoint a specialist family lawyer. “A personal recommendation from a friend or a colleague is great. However, if you don’t know who to approach you should consider contacting Resolution (telephone number 01689 820272) whose members are committed to a constructive resolution of family disputes”.

“Further, make sure that your family lawyer has the contacts that you need. Such a specialist will be “networked”. Sometimes in putting a case together it is necessary to employ other professionals such as, valuers, pension actuaries and in big money cases forensic accountants. Your family lawyers should also be able to recommend mediators and have contact with collaborative lawyers if needed”.

“You should listen to the advice your lawyer gives you, after all you are paying for it! A good family lawyer will take a sensible approach to your case and give you sound and pragmatic advice. Most family lawyers adopt a non confrontational approach. A good lawyer will encourage solutions”.

Caption: Louise Sheasby, Chartered Legal Executive, Family Team

I have one natural child and one adopted child. If I die, will my estate automatically be shared equally between the two of them?

If you die without having made a Will, the laws of intestacy will apply. This means that there is a statutory order of who will inherit and how much. It isn’t clear from your question as to whether you are married and if you are this would have an effect on the amount (if any) that your children automatically inherit on your death.

If you have a husband/wife/civil partner, they would take a set amount outright and the balance would be split into two. The spouse would receive the income from half of the balance whilst they are alive but the capital would be payable to your two children upon the death of your spouse. The other half will go to your two children at the age of 18. Joint and nominated assets are however treated differently.

If you have no spouse, your two children will inherit equally. Adopted children inherit from their adopted parents rather than their birth parents and so your two children would be treated equally under the intestacy provisions. This means that if your child’s birth parents also die without having made a Will, your child will not inherit from both estates only yours.

It is, however, important that you consider making a Will as there maybe certain personal possessions that you would want to make sure each child gets. Furthermore, if your children are still under the age of eighteen you may wish to appoint trustees who will manage the money for them until they are old enough to manage it directly themselves. Under the intestacy provisions, children inherit their money at the age of eighteen years but you may consider this too young and want to defer to a later age. It would, however, be advisable to take professional advice as there can be tax implications of doing this. Also, it is important to consider who would look after your children on a day to day basis and this can be included in a Will.

CAPTION: Donna Bothamley, Head of the Wills and Probate Team