Blog
Andrew is on Channel 5’s Cowboy Traders at 8pm on 11th April talking about landlord and tenant law.
Changes to landlord and tenant law
New provisions of note to private landlords and tenants are about to come into force in England and Wales as a result of the Localism Act. The changes affect the tenancy deposit scheme for ASTs (Assured Shorthold Tenancies) and the main points are:
- The rules affect new tenancies taken out on or after 6th April 2012, and existing tenancies will have 30 days to comply i.e. by 6th May
- The time for protecting a deposit and supplying the required information is increased from 14 days to 30 days
- The penalty payable by landlords will be between the amount of the deposit and up to three times deposit as the directed by the Court
- Tenants will be able to claim penalty payments after they have left the property
- Landlords will only be able to serve a “Section 21 notice to quit” if a deposit has been protected within the 30 day period. However if a landlord has failed to protect within 30 days, the landlord may only serve a section 21 notice by repaying the deposit in full, minus any agreed deductions or making by application to the relevant deposit scheme.
From 1st February 2012 the maximum compensation for unfair dismissal has been raised from £68,000 to £72,300.
There will be a new flat rate for maternity and paternity pay from 1st April 2012 of £135.45 per week for employees earning over £107.
Statutory sick pay is also to be increased to £85.85 per week (effective 6th April)
Debt Collection Offer
Cash is the lifeblood of any organisation. Our experienced debt collection team can help to improve cash flow by recovering debts is a timely and cost efficient manner. Until the end of the year we are offering to collect the first debt free as an introduction to our debt services.
The offer is for pre-litigation stage only and does not include disbursements.
Does your company have a website? Then you need to read this: New rules on cookies: Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011
Cookies are small files that are saved in an individual user’s Internet browser that are used to customise a user’s browsing experience. New EU regulations that came into force in May 2011 require website owners to get “explicit consent” from users before cookies are stored on their computers. In effect this makes thousands of websites illegal under European law.
Strong opposition from commercial parties in the UK failed to make any change to the new law. However a 12 month period for websites to comply was agreed. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued guidance on how the new requirements might be met in practice. Except in the case of cookies used to store information necessary for a service requested by the user e.g. in an online shopping baskets, enforcement will begin in 2012.
Bribery Act
A court clerk has become the first person charged under the new Bribery Act. He is accused of asking for money in return for helping a person in relation to a motoring charge and he will appear in Court himself in October.
The Bribery Act 2010 came into force in July 2011. It replaces various old laws, bringing them together in one framework and creating four new offences. These offences cover the paying and receiving of bribes, the bribery of foreign public officials and a new offence of the failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery. The Act is wide-ranging, covering both the public and private sectors, and has with reach beyond UK borders in certain circumstances.
Religious Discrimination – Employment Appeal Tribunal
A case heard in June at the EAT resulted in an interesting decision relating to the conflict between business needs and religious obligations. Muslim security guard Mr Charfi had claimed that not being allowed to leave work every Friday lunchtime to attend a local mosque amounted to indirect religious discrimination. The EAT however upheld the ruling of an earlier Employment Tribunal that the shift pattern was justified on commercial grounds as their sites need to manned at all times. As Mr Charfi had declined the offer to have Fridays off and to work a weekend day instead an also had access to an onsite prayer room he had not been discriminated against on religious grounds.
Employment Tribunals
New statistics have just published by the Ministry of Justice for the year 2010/2011 show that the number of employment claims was 218,100. This was a slight decrease overall compared to last year however unfair dismissal claims still formed a large part with nearly 48,000 received. Interestingly there was a massive 31% spike in age discrimination claims, with the average award in this category being £30,289. To avoid employment disputes from escalating to Tribunal stage we recommend that employers maintain up to date HR documentation and follow recommended procedures. Our specialist solicitors can advise on such matters and also provide a product called Employer Assist that for a reasonable monthly fee can guide employer organisations through the complex requirements of employment legislation and even provide insurance should disputes ever reach a Tribunal.
Pensions Act Employers need to start preparing now for the provisions of the Pensions Act 2008 coming into effect next year. All employers will be obliged to enrol staff aged between 22 and state pension age and are not already in company pension scheme into a “personal account” pension scheme. The legislation will be introduced gradually over 4 years from October 2012 depending on an employer’s size, beginning with large employers first.
The Agency Workers Directive came into force on 1st October 2011. “Temps” will become entitled to many of the same basic conditions of employment as directly hired employees including pay, leave, working time rules, and use of staff facilities. However some rights will require a qualifying period of 12 weeks and the legislation will not affect redundancy, sick pay, or maternity/paternity pay.
