PROPERTY LAW

HOME FOR LIFE

MY partner and I are splitting up. The house is in joint names but independent halves. I have agreed that he can live in the house as long as he gives his half to our son when he dies: he has other children by a previous marriage. How can we arrange this legally? YOU will have to insist on your partner putting his share in trust, giving him a right to enjoy his half of the house on a rent free basis during his lifetime. I would suggest that you are one of the trustees of this trust. Once your partner has ‘settled’ his half of the house in this way it will not pass under his will but will pass instead to your son under the trust, and override any clause which your partner might seek to insert in his will at a later date.

PLEASE RELEASE US

WE took an assignment of a lease to a restaurant in 2009 from a woman who had been running it as a café. We spent thousands on the property but two years ago we sold the lease back to her when my husband became ill. She has now gone bankrupt, and the landlord is demanding the rent from us. Is this right? THE answer depends upon how you assigned the lease back to the woman. If you did not obtain the landlord’s consent then this was an unlawful assignment and you remain liable for the rent. If you had sought the landlord’s consent then you would have had to agree to an authorised rent guarantee, so either way you remain liable for the rent.

NO QUARTER!

I OWN a caravan on a site on the coast. I sold it privately for £10,000, but the site owners want £2,500 of this. Is this sharp practice? They already charge me £1,800 in ground rent annually. YOU will no doubt have signed an agreement when you first bought a caravan on the site. If you read this document carefully it will most likely answer your question: agreements of this type very often give site owners very wide powers, even to the point of forcing you to replace your caravan every few years or they can even sell the caravan to recover arrears of the licence fees. If you are still in doubt show the agreement to a solicitor.

WARY OF WILLOW

THERE’S a willow tree on next door’s land within six yards of my property. It has already grown taller than the house and the branches scrape against the roof and upstairs windows. I wrote to the owner but haven’t received a reply. I am worried that the roots will have reached the house’s foundations. NOW that you have alerted your neighbour to the potential danger from the tree he will arguably be liable for any damage that may occur; but you’re better off preventing damage at this stage rather than waiting for disaster to happen. Make sure your buildings insurance is up to date. Your insurers would be your first port of call if cracks start appearing. If the tree is not the subject of a preservation order, you can cut back the branches yourself up to the boundary line between the two properties so long as you do not trespass on your neighbour’s land and you offer the branches you cut off back to your neighbour. If this will not solve the problem, you should also consider with a solicitor and/or a right to light surveyor whether your right to light is being infringed.

»»Call SAS Daniels LLP Solicitors on 0161 475 7676 or 01625 442 100. Visit www.sasdaniels.co.uk. If you have any legal questions, write to Weekly Law and You, MEN Media, Mitchell Henry House, Hollinwood Avenue, Chadderton OL9 8EF, or email mail@lawQs.co.uk