LEGAL CORNER
Team Building on Bantham Beach By Owen Hill, Consultant Solicitor
t
here is no doubt in my mind that a bunch of people working
together in any industry will always benefit from time spent away from the coal face and mucking about
together. this includes lawyers, who generally need to get out much more often! so if you visit the fabulous Bantham estate sometime soon and see a group of awkward looking older people falling off rented surf boards, it will be the team here that worked hard over the summer to finalise the sale of the estate. If you did not already know, the Bantham estate has
been in the ownership of the same family since just after the First World War. It extends to around 728 acres including a golf course and village but is probably best known for the marvellous beach and the best surfing conditions on the south Coast. the evans family transferred the estate to a company
called evans estates shortly after the second World War and nothing much has changed in living memory. Hardly anyone will even notice when the estate changes hands because the owner of the land will continue to be the same company - it is the shares in the company that are being transferred to new owners. to handle a transaction of this scale, a law firm has to put together a team of people with the relevant skills and
experience to deal with the different discrete areas of law. two lawyers were assigned to deal with the property aspects, one on employment law issues and two more on general commercial aspects including the share Purchase Agreement. then we agreed to deal by email with circulation lists
including all the clients as well as their accountants and surveyors - for both sides! But it was such a pleasure. Lawyers spend so much of their time in splendid
isolation, fretting over some obscure issues that few other would understand or care about if they did. so it did us all the world of good to take a major transaction like this from start to finish in a manner that included all disciplines in all communications and led to a collaborative work ethic and the sensible resolution of various issues that came into play. When the deal was done, it was as a result of a lot of
hard graft and team work. After the dust settled and I was in the middle of a more mundane task, I paused for a moment and thought that instead of going to a posh restaurant to celebrate how clever we are, we should go to the beach instead and make complete fools of ourselves. Don’t worry though. By Monday morning the team will be suited and booted again with our sensible heads on, ready to take your instruction to act on the next major commercial transaction. We are ready when you are
New laws on dying without a Will By Marinella Hollies, Partner
t
he biggest overhaul of laws governing what happens to
someone’s money when they die without a Will came into force on 1st
October 2014. the Inheritance and trustees’ Powers Act 2014 has
made some positive changes. But “common law” partners may be shocked to discover they still have absolutely no protection, while the children of married partners will be entitled to far less than before October. When someone dies without a Will, there is a set of
rules that determines how that person’s assets are shared out and the Act has now changed those rules. the Act won’t affect anyone who dies with less than
£250,000 in assets. But for those with more – and there’s a growing number following the increase in house prices – it could have a significant impact on the family they leave behind. When the Act was under discussion, many lawyers were
pressing for the partners in unmarried relationships to have rights over their deceased partner’s estate if they had lived together for a certain number of years. under the previous law, couples who live together (co-
habitees) had no guaranteed right to receive a penny – regardless of how long they have lived together - even if they had children. under the new law, surprisingly, nothing has changed. Co-habitees are still not automatically entitled to receive anything.
By ignoring couples who chose not to marry but wish
to live together in a stable family unit, the new Act does not reflect the way many people want to live in today’s society. so it remains the case that the only way to ensure that part, or all, of your estate will go to your partner is to marry them, or make a Will. the biggest change is for married couples and civil
partnerships without children. under the old rules, if a spouse died without a Will and
there were no children, then the first £450,000 of the estate, plus half of the rest, went to the surviving spouse. the other half was split between the deceased’s blood relatives – which often meant the money went back to parents. under the new Act, a surviving spouse will receive the whole estate and parents and distant relatives won’t receive anything. there are also some important changes as to what
happens if a married couple or a couple in a civil partnership has children. the surviving married partner or civil partner will
receive the first £250,000 together with half of the rest of the estate. the children will receive half of the estate above £250,000. this may not be what the deceased wanted to happen
at all. trying to change this provision can be expensive and, if the family cannot agree, may be impossible. so to avoid the distress and expense that this could cause there is no way round it – it pays to make a Will.
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