Excellent Scottish Government booklet that provides practical advice at a time of bereavement.
The booklet can be found here.
“Substitute Attorneys
We have now received the further, clarifying advice referred to in recent communications in regard to the position of substitute attorneys. The result of that advice is such that the Office of the Public Guardian has retracted the original policy decision which required evidence of a substitute attorney’s preparedness to act at the point of initial registration.
In summary, the status quo remains in that only principal attorneys have to confirm their preparedness to act at the point of initial registration. As is now, where there is a substitute attorney, OPG will seek such confirmation only where the principal attorney fails.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause you.”
More on this can be found here.
4 March 2013
Power of Attorney (PoA) Update – Manual Submissions
There is currently a 6 week waiting period before your PoA can be processed and returned to you. This week we will be working on PoAs received on and around 23rd January 2013.
Last week we processed:
More on this can be found here.
The Public Guardian has announced that from 1st April 2013, substitute attorneys will be required to confirm by way of signature, that they are willing to act at the point of registration.
This change in practice will impact on the Schedule 1 certificate, which is incorporated in the power of attorney document, as it will be necessary to state the names of any substitute attorneys in Section 4 of the certificate. These requirements will apply to continuing and/or welfare powers of attorney signed after 1st April 2013.
The power of attorney registration form that we currently provide is being modified and will include a facility for substitute attorneys to confirm their willingness to act.
This form will be available from the “Power of Attorney Registration Forms and Guidance Notes” section of the website by the end of this month. This version of the form may be used prior to 1st April 2013.
More on this can be found here.
The latest addition to our website is our “Know How” page.
This page not only includes our popular “Property and Conveyancing Casebook” but a “Training and Practice Notes” section.
This includes VAT and inheritance tax slides with notes. These are aimed at a LLB or Diploma in Legal Practice class. The format and content can though be easily altered to suit a different audience.
There are also Practice Notes on landfill tax and aggregates levy. These Practice Notes provide a comprehensive introduction to these taxes.
If you would to know more about these materials please feel to contact us. See the “Who we are” section of our website.
Pawson deceased v HMRC 2012 UKFTT 51 (TC)
The executors of the late Nicolette Pawson are launching a fighting fund to take their case to the England and Wales Court of Appeal, following their defeat by HMRC at the Upper tax Tribunal last month.
The case turns on whether furnished holiday lets are eligible for business property relief from inheritance tax.
“Mr Justice Henderson decided that the services provided ‘were all of a relatively standard nature [with] nothing to distinguish it from any other actively managed furnished letting business of a holiday property’.”
The Upper tax Tribunal decision can be found here, my earlier blog on this can be found here and an excellent piece from the STEP journal on this can be found here.
Sandra McDonald, Public Guardian has provided an update on the current power of attorney position.
I would recommend this book to any solicitor in Scotland that deals with trusts. Rennie Galbraith has produced a much needed second edition of his drafting guide. It is published by W.Green.
I particularly liked the section on the use of Scottish terminology and the influence of English law on Scottish trust law.
“The influence of English law and practice of trust is still extremely prevalent today and certainly at a more than superficial level. The reasons for this do not reflect well on the Scottish legal profession, those responsible for teaching the profession or those responsible for Scottish legislation. English terminology abounds and, as a result principally of “English” legislation, which refers to “settlors” rather than “trusters” and “trusts with interests in possession” rather than “liferent trusts”. The vast bank and array of trust taxation law tends to use English terminology. Indeed, the trust law relating to charities could be described as almost a complete transplant of English law to the law of charities in Scotland”.
Comments close on the Scottish Law Commission’s discussion paper on the right to liberty of adults with incapacity in residential facilities on 31 October 2012.
This is from the accompanying press release:
“The background to the project is a decision of the European Court of Human Rights in a case involving a person with autism, who had been admitted to Bournewood – a psychiatric hospital in England. The care he was receiving there had some restrictive features, and requests by his carers for him to return home were refused. The Court’s decision was that there had been a breach of his right to liberty, as protected by Article 5 of the Convention. That result caused a change in the law of England and Wales. Admissions to long-stay hospitals for people with autism or other neurological conditions or disabilities who lacked decision-making capacity could no longer be regarded as voluntary and informal. A new system was introduced to authorise these admissions. The changes also affected some admissions to care homes.
The Commission is therefore examining the position in Scots law concerning the right to liberty of adults with incapacity in residential facilities.”
The consultation and other papers can be found here.
The Scottish Court of Session has ruled that the one-year time limit for s25 financial provision claims under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 is to be rigidly applied.
Overruling a sheriff’s decision to allow a time-barred claim in Simpson v Downie, the Court of Session said a cohabitant has no independent substantive right to financial provision.
The full case report from the Scottish Courts Service can be found here.
An article from Scottish Legal News can also be found here.
