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17 October 2019
Issue: 7860 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Civil way: 18 October 2019

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Overcoming restriction; petty relocation; inheritance ruling dead; mousy divorces

Taking a rifle to a stifle

The current fashion is for business premises to rot away unoccupied. If it is not the local planning authority which is standing in the way of conversion to dwellings, then a restrictive covenant is the frustrating factor. An alternative to paying a multitude of arms and legs by way of an indemnity policy premium or assassinating the covenantee, is to get rid of the covenant. The discharge or modification provisions on which we were weaned that are s 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925 are available not only for freeholds but also for leaseholds (s 84(12))—and not a lot of people know that—of more than 40 years where 25 of them have expired.

And so it was in Shaviram Normandy Ltd v Basingstoke and Deana Borough Council [2019] UKUT 256 (LC), involving the former UK headquarters of IBM which have been empty since 2013 and fallen into a significant state of repair, accelerated by vandalism. The

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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NEWS
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NLJ this week: Divorce ‘nuclear weapon’ freezes assets but entangles outsiders
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
NLJ this week: What counts as ‘rent’? Court says labour alone won’t do
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Your magistrates’ court needs you!
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
NLJ this week: Freed but failed—justice system leaves the innocent empty-handed
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
NLJ this week: Clarity on whistleblowing, settlements and tribunal limits
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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