Posted on July 23, 2020
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.
Read more...Posted on July 17, 2020
If you have been consulted by your Employer in relation to a redundancy situation and have been given a settlement agreement it is vital that you seek independent legal advice from a relevant advisor in relation to this to ensure it is legally binding.
Your settlement agreement should contain certain information which the relevant advisor will need to ensure is contained in the agreement and which you will be made aware of.
Such information includes the names of the parties involved, the amount of the redundancy payment and any other benefits or holiday accrued that you are entitled to. One of the most important aspects of the agreement is whether it contains a provision which waives the ability to claim statutory rights. The rights that are being waived must be specifically included, such as those relating to unfair dismissal, redundancy payments, discrimination claims or holiday pay.
Read more...Posted on July 14, 2020
We have recently become involved in a matter where the issue of which tenants have given notice on behalf of which tenants has become problematic.
We have been instructed by Landlords who have let accommodation to three tenants. The tenancy agreement is on the basis that the tenants are jointly and severally liable for the rent.
One of the tenants has given notice to the Landlords. The notice is stated as being on behalf of all of the tenants. The Landlords have found new tenants and everything seemed to be fine.
The Landlords have now instructed us because just 1 week before the new tenants are due to move in they have found out that one of the three tenants did not actually intend to leave and therefore did not give Notice and does not agree that the person who gave Notice on her behalf had her permission to do so. This has understandably caused our clients enormous stress.
Read more...Posted on July 7, 2020
As a Landlord you may have been aware of a case called Caridon Property Limited –v- Monty Shooltz, and if not then you may have been aware of the implications arising from it. In this case the Court had been of the opinion that where a Landlord failed to give a new tenant a copy of the gas safety certificate for the new property before he moved in, he was thereafter forever unable to serve a Section 21 notice to terminate any tenancy. He therefore would be limited to using a Section 8 notice in order to remove a tenant.
However, luckily for Landlords, this has recently been looked at again in the case of Trecarrell House Limited –v- Rouncefield.
Read more...Posted on July 6, 2020
To ensure that a settlement agreement is legally binding it needs to comply with the provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Ensuring you get the correct advice regarding your rights and what the settlement contains is vitally important. To comply with the requirements of the Act a relevant independent advisor must be consulted and they must provide confirmation that they have advised an employee about the terms and effect of the agreement and, more importantly, in regards to the ability to pursue any further claims should the employee wish to do so.
Read more...Posted on July 1, 2020
In an ever increasing technologically developing world, and particularly whilst we have all been in lockdown, the use of electronic signature is of course becoming more wide spread. There is a growing area of dispute as to whether a document has actually been signed in the legal meaning of the word. It is of course accepted that when someone signs a document by hand, they understand that they are signing a document, but can the same be said when the document has been signed electronically?
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