Latest news

Forsters acts for Crown Estate to regear lease for Coutts' Strand Head Office

Acting on behalf of the landlords, The Crown Estate, Forster’s has completed the modernisation of the long leasehold held by Coutts & Co at 440 Strand. The older ground lease was surrendered, with a new 125 year lease granted to Coutts & C...
07/05/2008

Forsters supports "tremendous and stirring" Cheek by Jowl

Forsters is continuing its corporate sponsorship of Cheek by Jowl, which is presenting a new production of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida that runs from 22 May-14 June 2008. Forsters' sponsorship is helping to support Cheek by Jowl’s commitme...
01/05/2008

Forsters lawyers' marathon effort raises £9,000 for Centrepoint

Four Forsters lawyers ran the London Marathon on April 13, raising nearly £9,000 to date for one of Forsters’ chosen charities, Centrepoint. Taking part were Ian Leigh and Magnus Hassett from the commercial property team, property finance lawye...
29/04/2008

Sites of potential strategic importance - The Mayor's new planning powers

What's happened? In October 2007, the Greater London Authority Act 2007 ("the 2007 Act") received Royal Assent. It grants the Mayor new powers to direct that he will be the planning body for the purposes of a planning application, subject to the...
22/04/2008

Partner appointment consolidates Forsters' residential property litigation strengths - Firm sees substantial growth in leasehold enfranchisement instructions

Forsters has promoted residential property litigator Natasha Rees to the partnership, bringing its total number of partners to 32.  Her promotion consolidates the strengths of the firm’s well-respected property litigation team, and will under...
07/04/2008

Forsters announces the promotion of two new partners

Forsters has announced the promotion of two new partners from today bringing its total partnership to 32.  Both promotions underline Forsters’ commitment to increase and improve services to private clients.  Shona Alexander is promot...
01/04/2008

Transitional Arrangements for Energy Performance Certificates

In response to concerns that there are too few qualified assessors, the Government has announced the following transitional arrangements in relation to the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates for non domestic buildings: Potential s...
17/03/2008

Budget 2008 – Residence, domicile and offshore trusts

Following the end of the consultation period and after extensive lobbying, Alistair Darling's first Budget as Chancellor has seen a relaxation of the proposed regime that was introduced in the Pre-Budget Report of 9th October 2007. There h...
14/03/2008

Empty Rates Relief to Be Restricted

The current position Industrial and warehouse premises receive 100% relief from business rates for the whole of the time they remain empty.  The majority of empty commercial properties, including shops and offices, pay no business r...
11/03/2008

Wrongful termination of a football player's contract by the player. Is the player liable for the club's lost transfer fee opportunity?

Article 17 of FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players governs the position. During the Protected Period of a player's contact (broadly the first 3 years), any wrongful termination by the player may result in punitive sanctions of ...
04/03/2008

New Energy Efficiency Certificates Required for Commercial Premises

Article 7 of The EU directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings requires the introduction of energy performance certificates giving information about the energy efficiency of individual buildings. EPCs show a building's energy efficiency ra...
22/02/2008

Witholding Notices pursuant to the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 - Tenth Anniversary Review

The Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 ("the Act") will have been in force for ten years on 1 April 2008.  The obligation to serve withholding notices pursuant to that Act has had a considerable impact upon cash f...
19/02/2008

Forsters acts on £54m of acquisitions for Ashcap

Ashbourne Property Fund Managers, which manages funds for private Irish investors, has bought a portfolio of 13 properties from David Kirch’s CNC Properties for £48m. The portfolio comprises 963,319 sq ft of office, retail and industrial space t...
13/02/2008

UK resident non-domiciliaries – welcome clarification from HMRC

Draft legislation governing the taxation of UK resident non-domiciliaries was published on 18 January 2008 (see News item dated  23 January 2008).   Yesterday, HMRC issued a public letter to the Society of Estate and Trust Prac...
13/02/2008

Tenant insolvency: The need for pro-active steps by the landlord

Where rent is late, or it is known that the tenant is in financial difficulties, a landlord needs to take pro-active steps to best protect its interests.  Delay can prove to be very costly. A landlord can steal a march on other creditors by ...
07/02/2008

The House of Lords decide the question: "What is a house?"

The question "what is a house?" does appear to be a fairly straight forward one to answer.  Not so, however, in the context of enfranchisement. On 30th January 2008, the House of Lords allowed an appeal brought by the tenant of a pr...
05/02/2008

Changes to the UK tax treatment of non-domiciliaries

In his first Pre-Budget Report as Chancellor of the Exchequer, published on 9 October 2007, Alistair Darling announced significant changes to the way in which non-UK domiciled individuals resident in the United Kingdom will be taxed.  Draft l...
23/01/2008

Forsters publishes 2007 Annual Review

Continued growth and investment as firm approaches 10th anniversary.  Forsters has today published its 2007 Annual Review.  This is Forsters' third Annual Review since becoming a limited liability partnership in 2004.  Forsters is...
15/01/2008

What the directories say

Chambers UK - A Client's Guide to the UK Legal Profession 2008 Edition Forsters has once again been very highly rated by Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession in its 2008 edition, with many of its lawyers ranked as leading individuals. To r...
08/11/2007

Forsters signals strategic growth of private client group with two partner hires

Private client to be a key driver of firm's future growth. Forsters today signalled its commitment to the growth of its private client group with the announcement of two partner appointments.  These appointments, part of a programme of expa...
05/11/2007