Bullet Point Updates
July 2018 – Commercial leases under the microscope
Commercial leases are big business in Scotland. But while there are acres of excruciating legislation covering residential and agricultural leases there’s precious little covering commercial ones. That can be an advantage. The absence of detailed legislative provision...
June 2018 – First time buyers & a “Land and Buildings Transaction Tax” break
Some modest relief from “Land and Buildings Transaction Tax” (“LBTT”) has been introduced for first-time buyers. The relevant statutory order (the snappily-titled “Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (First-Time Buyer Relief)(Scotland) Order 2018”) came into force on...
May 2018 – Notices & employment – When does a notice period begin to run?
Rarely can the answer to the question “when does a notice period begin to run?” have been more starkly illustrated than in the case of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood which was decided by the Supreme Court last month. The facts – in...
April 2018 – The “right to roam” clarified
The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (“the 2003 Act”) provides that everyone has the right to be on land, for recreational or educational purposes, and to cross land. These rights are generally known as the “right to roam” and apply to most land and inland water and...
February 2018 – LBTT’s 3rd Birthday – Part 2
This is a follow-up to last month’s BPU on Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (“LBTT”) at the end of which it was said: “As far as [many aspects] are concerned LBTT has largely followed the approach taken in the UK “stamp duty land tax” legislation [i.e. the...
February 2018 – LBTT’s 3rd Birthday
Birthday announcement by Revenue Scotland The Revenue Scotland website recently announced (emphases added): “The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 sets out the legislative requirement for a tax return to be submitted for leases in Scotland in...
January 2018 – Letting Agents Code
The “Code” here is nothing to do with Da Vinci but is more prosaic. On 31st January, the Letting Agent Code of Practice came into force. The Regulations (the Letting Agent Code of Practice (Scotland) Regulations 2016) include the 25-page Code as a schedule. In...
December 2017 – A New Year Gift? Retrospective repayment of ADS for some
This is a follow-up to the BPUs for January 2016 and May 2017 concerning the “Additional Dwelling Supplement” (“ADS”) payable in addition to Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (“LBTT”) for second homes. The story is now getting a bit convoluted. But, in outline, the...
November 2017 – “What’s in a name?”
When a child is born its birth must be officially registered within 21 days. Generally, part and parcel of that registration process is recording the child’s name. Anyone whose birth is registered in Scotland may apply for a change of name to be recorded in the...
October 2017 – “To boldly go” New private residential tenancy agreements – Model Agreements
The Bullet Point Updates for April and May 2016 gave an outline of the radical re-vamp of private residential tenancies under the Private Housing (Tenancies)(Scotland) Act 2016) (“the new Act”) and the July 2017 BPU touched on an aspect of bridging the gap between the...
September 2017 – Latin Tag Axed. Third Party Rights Reborn
The Contract (Third Party Rights)(Scotland) Bill (“the Bill”) The Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 21st September. 109 votes were cast in favour; there were no votes against; and no abstentions. Something so uncontroversial does sound a bit boring. That...
August 2017 – Property Factors and Who is a “homeowner”
The Bullet Point Update for October 2013 gave an outline of the Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011. By way of a brief re-cap, before the 2011 Act was passed property factors in Scotland were not subject to regulation or any minimum standards of practice. In...
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