Divorcing when you own a business together

The breakdown of a marriage is often difficult enough and there are lots of decisions to make, but throwing a business into the mix can make things all the more difficult, especially when you started the company together or share an interest in it.

According to figures from the Institute of Family Business, there are more than 3 million family businesses that currently operate in the UK. Family businesses tend to operate on mutual trust and all too often overlook the importance of putting pre-emptive measures in place like pre-nuptial agreements and post-nuptial agreements. These types of measures can help to prevent putting your business at risk further down the line if problems arise and a marriage breaks down.

Why every business partnership should have a deed in place

If you are thinking about entering into a business partnership then it is incredibly important that you set out an agreement that outlines your duties and obligations to each of the partners and to the partnership as a whole. Even when working with friends and family there is the opportunity for disagreement and especially when there is a lack of clarity over how the business operates. Drafting a partnership agreement at an early stage and regularly updating it to reflect changes in the partnership can help avoid expensive buyouts and headaches further down the line.

How to check a tenant under Right-to-Rent

Due to changes made in February 2016, every landlord in England must now carry out checks on potential tenants to make sure that they have the right to be in the country on a residential basis before they are allowed to move in.

Right-to-rent checks do not need to be carried out on current tenants but if you fail to check new tenants within a 28 day period leading up to the start of a new tenancy then you could face penalties.

Right to Rent was introduced as part of the Immigration Act (2014) as a way of deterring those persons who are not legally allowed to reside in the UK, and was initially piloted in the West Midlands for six months. In order to establish whether a resident is allowed to live in the UK they must ask to see original and genuine documentation such as ID or birth certificates and retain copies on file with dates of checks recorded next to them. If a tenant is currently allowed to live in the UK but only on a temporary basis then the landlord must schedule to follow up the check just before the expiry date or 12 months after the initial check. A list of acceptable identification can be viewed here, as supplied by the Home Office.