Archived News from 2017

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Housing & Regeneration

December

Legal Article

Top Rankings for the Forbes' Housing & Regeneration Team

14/12/17

Forbes Solicitors' is celebrating after its Housing & Regeneration Team were highly ranked in the prestigious Chambers 2017 Guide and Legal 500. Forbes are ranked as Band 1 in Chambers & Partners for Social Housing, with Lucy Worral…

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November

Forbes News

Forbes Promotes Justine Hunkins and Jennifer Hankinson

30/11/17

Forbes Solicitors has announced two promotions within its expert Housing and Regeneration Team. Justine Hunkins has been made Partner and Jennifer Hankinson is now an Associate at one of the North's leading law firms. Justine is Head of the highly successful specialist Housing…

Legal Article

Using CHAPS in time sensitive property transaction

23/11/17

Changes to the way CHAPS operates means that to the latest editions of Standard Commercial Property Conditions (SCPCs) and the Standard Conditions of Sale (SCSs) require amendments which are the standard terms frequently incorporated into property transactions. CHAPS (the Clearing House Automated…

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October

Forbes News

Five Newly Qualified Solicitors for Forbes

23/10/17

Five members of staff at leading North West legal firm Forbes Solicitors are celebrating after qualifying as Solicitors. Amy Chadwick, Rebecca McCann, Laura Marsh, Bethany Paliga and Stacey Lakeland are now beginning the next stage of their careers with the firm. Amy, based in the Leeds…

Forbes News

Forbes Solicitors celebrates 44 Legal 500 Recommendations

19/10/17

Forbes Solicitors is celebrating after receiving 44 recommendations for its lawyers and services in the 2017 Legal 500 rankings, up from 31 in 2016. The leading North West legal firm is also delighted to reveal that the firm has been recommend for the first time for Education , Clinical Negligence…

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September

Legal Article

Simone Agoreyo -v- London Borough of Lambeth (Appeal)

25/09/17

Summary of the facts The Appellant in this case was a newly appointed teacher at the school. It was alleged that within the first few weeks of her employment there were three incidents which occurred whilst dealing with particularly challenging children who had special educational needs, for which…

Legal Article

Can you monitor your employees personal communications at work?

25/09/17

On Tuesday 05 September 2017 the European Court of Human Rights ('ECHR') established a significant legal precedent restricting the extent to which employers can monitor employees office emails. Summary of the case Bogdan Bărbulescu, a Romanian software engineer, was…

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August

Legal Article

Proposed Fixed Costs for Disrepair Claims

25/08/17

As you may be aware, in 2010 Lord Justice Jackson published his final report of his review of the rules and principles governing the costs of civil litigation. This report, amongst other things, introduced fixed costs for certain low value claims, in the area of personal injury and took many disrepair…

Forbes News

Forbes Becomes Legal Provider to emh group

03/08/17

Forbes Solicitors has reinforced its position as a leading provider of legal services to the affordable housing sector after being appointed to provide advice to Leicestershire-based emh group. Following a competitive tender process Forbes' Housing and Regeneration Team will provide advice in…

Legal Article

Queen's Speech confirms GDPR to survive Brexit

01/08/17

Through the Queen's Speech, the government confirmed that which the ICO has already indicated: that there will be data protection law in the UK post-Brexit. Alongside the Great Repeal Bill and various others, will sit a Data Protection Bill, as outlined on pages 46 & 47 of the Queen's Speech…

Legal Article

Supreme Court rules Employment Tribunal Fees are Unlawful

01/08/17

Today (26 July 2017), the Supreme Court has ruled that the Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunals Fees Order 2013 is unlawful, unconstitutional and will be quashed with immediate effect. This serves as a prominent example of the Courts being willing to limit Governmental…

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May

Legal Article

Manchester Homelessness Fund

23/05/17

In his first few days in office, the newly elected major of Manchester Andy Burnham has launched a fund in a bid to tackle the growing issue of homelessness in the city. Homelessness has been a growing issue in Manchester over the last few years with the number of people living on the streets…

Legal Article

Questions our Employment & HR department have been asked this month

23/05/17

Q. We have a Consultant whom works 4 days a week on a variety of projects. In light of the recent cases about self-employed status, is the Consultant self-employed? A. Whether or not the Consultant will be self-employed will depend on a number of factors. Principally, a key factor is whether…

Legal Article

Weathering Welfare Reform

23/05/17

Social housing is dependent on rental income to remain financially viable. Much of this income is currently dependent on Housing Benefit. The imminent changes are expected to have significant implications for housing providers and their tenants. In principle, the public, those providing support to…

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April

Legal Article

Stress at work - managing long term sickness absence

12/04/17

Herry v Dudley Metropolitan BC The workplace has the potential to be a highly pressurised environment for everyone, particularly with the current austere climate within the Public Sector showing no signs of letting up and the uncertainty of Brexit looming in the wake of the triggering of Article…

Legal Article

De-regulatory Measures for Constitutional Changes

07/04/17

The Housing and Planning Act 2016 (HPA) introduced a number of de-regulatory changes relating to the constitutional consents regime, disposal consent regime, the Disposals Proceeds Fund and introduction of various notification requirements all of which are due to come into force on 6 April 2017. The…

Forbes News

Two Newly Qualified Solicitors for Forbes

06/04/17

Two members of staff at leading North West legal firm Forbes Solicitors are celebrating after qualifying as Solicitors. Sarah Petrie and Emanuele Bellanca are now beginning the next stage of their careers with the firm. Sarah, based in the Central Lancashire office, specialises in…

Legal Article

Changes to HCA Consents Regime from 06 April 2017

04/04/17

On 06 April 2017, a number of changes to the regulation of social housing will be introduced under the Housing and Planning Act 2016 ('the Act'). One of the de-regulation measures to be introduced is the removal of the HCA consents regime. These measures are set out in Schedule 4 to the Act…

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March

Legal Article

Housing White Paper: fixing the housing crisis?

07/03/17

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has issued a Housing White Paper entitled 'Fixing our broken housing market' setting out the challenges and opportunities in relation to housing. The paper contains a number of proposals with the Government intending to boost…

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February

Legal Article

Neighbourhood Watch: Disputes and CCTV

14/02/17

Last month, a court in Edinburgh decided a case where damages were sought for breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) in relation to the use of CCTV and surveillance equipment by neighbours. Whilst the decision was made in Scotland, it is not binding on courts in England and Wales, the case…

Legal Article

Supported Housing Funding Reform: Consultation Response

14/02/17

Forbes Solicitors acts for over 90 registered providers of social housing and local authorities. Supported housing is an umbrella term and brings together a range of different schemes and beneficiaries. The schemes that our clients operate include sheltered accommodation, extra care schemes, supported…

Legal Article

Spotlight on... our Contracts and Projects team

13/02/17

Legal Assistant within our Contracts and Projects team - Housing & Regeneration Group What I do I work in the Contracts & Projects team within Forbes' Housing & Regeneration Group. This involves dealing with a range of matters focusing on governance, contracts and procurement.…

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January

Legal Article

Settlement Agreements and the Procurement Rules

24/01/17

The CJEU in the case of Finn Frogne A/S v Rigspolitiet ved Center for Beredskabskommunikationhas has ruled that a settlement agreement can amount to a regulated modification of a contract. Facts of the case The state of Denmark initiated a procedure to award a public contract through…

Legal Article

The Importance of s.106 Monitoring

16/01/17

On 9 th January, Inside Housing published the results of a recent survey. The survey asked local authorities if they had processes in place to ensuring developers provide the social housing they are required to under s. 106 Agreements. Of the 41 councils asked, most confirmed that they had proper…

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