In these uncertain times you may find yourself faced with an employment issue or redundancy situation. If you need advice regarding your employment or a settlement agreement signed off by a relevant independent advisor, which is required by law for it to be legally binding, please do not hesitate to contact our Litigation department on 01273 582271 or email us at litigation@barwells.com to speak to one our friendly team to see if we can assist you.
The current situation is nothing if not complicated, however, I will try and set out a summary of where we appear to be now and where we appear to be heading. The first thing to keep in mind is that England and Wales are now on slightly different systems. Wales has already introduced a requirement for a 6 months’ notice period. Notice periods in England were still, at the time of writing this, 3 months. This had been the case for all notices that were served on or after 26th March 2020; however on 29th August 2020 the notice period extended to 6 months for most notices. This is intended to ensure that tenants are not made homeless over the winter period.
There has been a recent case looking at the issue of “No DSS” policies adopted by Letting Agents. This arose at trial in Birmingham County Court where Mr Tyler brought a claim against a letting agent who operated a “no DSS” policy.
As most landlords know there have been many changes at very short notice to the requirements for Notice to tenants. One of these changes has just come in to force on 29th August and it is now a requirement that tenants are given 6 months’ notice. This will apply to almost all notices. If you would like any advice on this, or on any other landlord and tenant issues please do not hesitate to contact our litigation team on 01273 582271 or litigation@barwells.com
Nobody would dispute that one of the sad repercussions of these difficult months is the fact that a large number of people may find themselves being made redundant or being offered a settlement agreement.
A settlement agreement is an agreement between you and your employer where you give up your right to bring any claim against the employer in exchange for a sum of compensation. In some settlement agreements the compensation sum can be quite high but in others the offer can be relatively modest.
A settlement agreement can cover situations where there is a potential redundancy, disciplinary, or where parties simply wish to no longer work together but the employer wants to comfort of knowing that the employee will never be able to bring a claim against them.
