Szabo & Associates News & Updates

For a person deciding on who should inherit from their Will, questions of how much beneficiaries will receive and in what shares are important. These decisions can be made more difficult if, for example, there are particular concerns about a beneficiary or a perceived need for encouragement to achieve something. As a consequence, the Will-maker may wish to make a bequest conditional.

As a commercial property tenant, exiting a commercial property lease before the expiration date is not always straightforward. A lease is a legal contract, and a landlord can take you to Court if it is broken. However, depending on the circumstances, the landlord may be prepared to negotiate a compromise.

A custody dispute over pet ownership can potentially be a serious source of contention between separating couples. Disputes can even lead to extreme behaviour. In the UK, two recent examples demonstrate just how acrimonious such situations can become. In one case, a property developer was taken to Court by his ex-girlfriend, accused of posing as a dog walker to abduct her cockapoo. Even more disturbingly, a 70-year-old Austrian, Count Konrad Goess-Saurau, was found guilty of shooting dead his wife's German pointer, Herman, while she was away.

An ‘Informal Will’ is one that has not been executed in accordance with the formal requirements for a Will to be accepted as legally valid. These formalities are:

If a tenant breaches a lease by defaulting on the payment of rent resulting in the termination of the lease, a landlord will be entitled to recover damages for the rental arrears up to the termination date. In addition, the landlord may also seek to claim loss of bargain damages.