Tughans Solicitors

Landlord Consent: What’s Reasonable?

By Real Estate Solicitor, Ciara McGreevy The Court of Appeal’s recent judgment in No. 1 West India Quay (Residential) Ltd v East Tower Apartments Ltd EWCA Civ 250 provides clarification for landlords as to what constitutes reasonable refusal of consent on the assignment of a lease. Background The tenant purported to sell 42 apartments,... Read More

GDPR: Tick Tock

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union in Spring 2016, starting a countdown of just more than 2 years until its effective date. When publishing, we are less than 1 month away from that date, which should be familiar to many by now: 25 May 2018.... Read More

European Court of Justice issue preliminary ruling on financial collateral arrangements

In Private Equity Insurance Group SIA v Swedbank AS EUECJ C-156/15 the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) delivered a preliminary ruling (the “Ruling”) on financial collateral arrangements (“FCAs”) (to include money, financial instruments (including assets and shares) together with credit claims), (the “Collateral”). The purpose of the Ruling was to consider... Read More

Swearing In The Workplace – How Do I Handle It?

“An employee has just complained about his manager swearing at him. This is a tough environment – people swear all the time and the humour is pretty black – how do I handle it?” In many industries, swearing forms part of the language of the workplace; swear words are normalised and are seldom noticed, let... Read More

Doctrine of Strict Compliance Not Applicable to Demand Guarantees

It is “hallowed law” that a bank can refuse to pay out under a letter of credit where the beneficiary’s demand contains “trivial or insignificant defects”. As far as letters of credit are concerned, “here is no room for documents which are almost the same, or which will do just as well.” However, the High... Read More

Autonomous vehicles – who is in the driving seat?

The UK government predicted in its budget in November 2017 that the driverless vehicle industry would be worth £28 billion to the UK economy by 2035 and that fully functional automated vehicles would be on the roads throughout the UK by 2021. Hailed by many as the next step in the digital revolution, the development... Read More

How Do I Handle It – Dress Code Dilemmas

I am the HR manager of a chain of restaurants.  I have recently received a complaint from a member of staff who claims that she was forced, by her manager, to wear high heels as part of her uniform.  She is a waitress and there is no dress code in place in the business.  How... Read More

How Do I Handle It? – “Not On My Site”

By Employment Director, Patricia Rooney.   We have a number of service contracts with large organisations in Northern Ireland.  One of our major clients has asked us to remove our employee from their site.  The client has not complained about the employee’s work performance but instead about allegations of criminal activity against the employee, which... Read More

How changes to EPC regulations in 2018 will affect your properties

In order to achieve the UK’s legislative targets, CO2 emissions from all buildings must be ‘close to zero’ by 2050. This implies, in the longer term, UK buildings will need to reach energy efficiency standards close to an “A” Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating. In 2013, 18% of non-domestic properties were in the very lowest... Read More

Interviewing A Potential Employee – How Do I Handle It?

By Employment Solicitor, Jack Balmer. I am responsible for our recruitment and selection processes, and am concerned about the diversity of our workforce. I don’t want our company to miss out on the best talent because of unfair assumptions made by an interviewer. How do I handle it? The interview is the final hurdle in... Read More