Issue: May 2025

HMLR – PG76

May 2025 | Conveyancing

Protecting a charging order is important and therefore any application to HMLR must be made promptly and correctly. An interim or final charging order that charges the legal estate may be protected by the entry of a notice in the register. A charging order that charges a beneficial interest under a trust of land cannot …

This article is only available to subscribers.

Procedure – interim orders; non-subject children

May 2025 | Family

This is an important but unusual case raising a novel point of legislative interpretation which appears not to have previously arisen, but with potentially significant consequence for families. Under ss37(1) CA 1989: ‘Where, in any family proceedings in which a question arises with respect to the welfare of any child, it appears to the court …

This article is only available to subscribers.

HMLR – PG19

May 2025 | Conveyancing

PG19 (Notices, restrictions and protection of third-party interests) is a very important practice guide for property practitioners. The anti-fraud restriction (Form LL) is also important. HMLR has updated sections 3.1.5.8 and 3.7.2 of PG19 to clarify HMLR’s requirements for compliance with, or removal of, a Form LL or company counter-fraud restriction by an insolvency practitioner, …

This article is only available to subscribers.

Return Orders – habitual residence

May 2025 | Family

M successfully appealed a decision dismissing her application for the return of the parties’ younger daughter G (14) from the US. G and F travelled to the US in August 2024 as permitted by a consent order which allowed F to permanently relocate to the US with both the parties’ daughters. In the event, the …

This article is only available to subscribers.

Breach of NMO – when effective?

May 2025 | Crime

Magistrates had wrongly concluded that lack of service of a non-molestation order (NMO) meant an offence under s42A Family Law Act 1996 could not be made out. The NMO in question was made in November 2023, prohibiting R from being present between 0730 and 1630 at a road on which a named child’s school was …

This article is only available to subscribers.

Sentencing – blackmail; kidnap

May 2025 | Crime

Two new sentencing guidelines are now in force for offences of blackmail, kidnap and false imprisonment. The guidelines came into effect on 1 April 2025 and concern: blackmail under s21 Theft Act which is triable only on indictment and carries a maximum custodial sentence of 14 years; and kidnap/false imprisonment at common law, also triable …

This article is only available to subscribers.

CA – boundary agreement

May 2025 | Land

The CA has heard an appeal concerned with whether a boundary agreement binds successors in title and whether, if it is capable of doing so, it only binds them if they have knowledge of the agreement. The case involved a dispute regarding a boundary agreement between two properties, Willow Cottage and The Old Stores. In …

This article is only available to subscribers.

SC – definition of a ‘woman’

May 2025 | Employment

One of the most talked about cases of recent times could be included in a number of sections of this edition, but as the implications of the SC’s decision on the definition of a woman for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 has particular relevance for employers, their policies, procedures and advisers, this seems …

This article is only available to subscribers.

Purpose codes – a reminder

May 2025 | Professional

Just a reminder to firms that the CLC reported in 2024 on changes to payments systems designed to help tackle fraud. Purpose Codes are four letter codes which are carried across the payment chain, providing information to all users in the payments chain to indicate the reason a payment is being made. Firms are reminded …

This article is only available to subscribers.