The exercise of break clauses can cause tenants great difficulty, especially where the break clause is subject to conditions. It is common for break clauses to require “vacant possession” and it can be difficult for a tenant to know what exactly this requires them to do. One question which comes up frequently is whether it is necessary to remove partitions in order to give vacant possession....
Two recent cases show the circumstances in which the court will allow contempt proceedings against directors for actions taken by their companies. ...
In cases where the supply partner you appoint doesn't fulfil you expectations, you will want to ensure that you have a carefully drafted contract providing you with the best protection and remedies to minimise the negative consequences of your supplier’s underperformance. ...
The Court of Appeal has again – this time in the case of MWB Business Exchange Centres Limited –v- Rock Advertising Limited, confirmed that parties will not be bound by a clause in a contract purporting to provide that oral variations will be ineffective....
The Jackson reforms of costs in civil litigation (mostly) came into force on 1 April 2013, including a new test for proportionality. However, in the intervening four years, there has been precious little authority as to what proportionality means in practice. This has changed as a result of the judgment of the Senior Costs Judge, Master Gordon-Saker, in BNM and MGN Limited....
The Courts now expect that parties who have a dispute will attempt to settle by negotiation before embarking on legal action. Detailed pre-action protocols stipulate how parties must therefore behave, and this will almost always involve sending a detailed letter before action and providing a response to it....
Those of you who attended our property seminar on 11 May 2016 heard about the circumstances in which a Tenant can recover damages from their Landlord where their Landlord has breached terms of the Lease...
For many clients, one of the most surprising and daunting aspects of litigation is the sheer volume of paperwork. To assist the court, documents are collated, tabulated, indexed, paginated, and duplicated many times over, and then transported across the city and beyond, all in anticipation of debates which may be decided in a matter of minutes in the court room. The large cost of materials and labour can unsurprisingly appear wasteful to a new litigant, both economically and environmentally, given the availability of technology which could significantly reduce the need for these costs....
Many commercial contracts contain a clause to the effect that any variations or amendments to the contract must be in writing. Parties to commercial agreements favour such clauses because they promote certainty: the parties know what they have to do to amend the contract and disputes about oral discussions are in theory avoided....
One of the main objectives of Clarkslegal’s dispute resolution team is to help our clients resolve their disputes as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. A constant pressure we have to factor into our service is the increasing cost of resolving disputes as successive governments seek to increase Court fees....
Commercial contracts often include obligations carrying the qualification “as soon as reasonably practicable”. A case earlier this month has given some insight into how the courts will interpret and apply such obligations. ...
The Court of Appeal has allowed the appeal in Sugar Hut Group –v- AJ Insurance, thereby allowing parties more confidence in predicting the consequences of a Part 36 offer. The case concerned a claim for damages arising from a fire at a nightclub that had featured prominently in “The Only Way is Essex”....
From 1 February 2016, landlords of residential properties are now required to carry out ‘right to rent’ checks on prospective tenants to ensure that they have the right to live in the UK before granting a tenancy. Failure to carry out the requisite checks can leave landlords liable to pay a fine of up to £3,000....
Clarkslegal has produced a guide on ‘What to expect for 2016’ which clearly sets out all the forthcoming legislative changes, which we hope you find useful in planning your year ahead. ...
In the recent case of RegioPost GmbH v Stadt Landau in der Pfalz, the European Court of Justice has decided that excluding a bidder from a tender who had failed to complete a declaration confirming that it would pay minimum wage to its workers did not constitute a breach of European public procurement law. ...
As any commercial landlord or tenant knows, rent is usually payable quarterly in advance. However what happens if you have paid rent for a full quarter but you are able to end your lease by serving a break notice that takes effect during the course of that quarter. Are you entitled to the return of rent relating to the period after the end of the lease?...
One of the most interesting procurement decisions to come out of the court in recent months is that of Woods Building Services v Milton Keynes Council. ...
It is common to see clauses in commercial contracts which seek to fix the damages which will be payable if one party breaches their contractual obligations. Sometimes the figures will be broadly what the parties would expect the financial loss caused by the breach to be. In other cases, the figures will be widely excessive and the suspicion will be that the person drafting the contract was seeking to impose an additional incentive on the other party to comply with the terms of the contract to avoid being heavily penalised....
It is common, particularly following termination of an agency agreement, for agents and principals to become involved in disputes over the commission which the agent is entitled to be paid. ...
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 which came into force on 1 October 2015 marks one of the biggest overhauls of consumer law in recent years. The aim of the new Act is to make the law clearer and easier to understand. ...