Rules of intestacy If a person has died without a Will, their estate will be distributed according to the Administration of Estates Act 1925. This Act sets out the rules of intestacy which determine who is entitled to inherit from an estate. If there are no living family members, then the estate passes to the Crown and the assets within the estate are known as ‘Bona Vacantia’. This is the name given to ownerless property and by law passes to the Crown. Bona Vacantia There are three different types of Bona Vacantia including ownerless property that passes to the Duchy of Cornwall. This is an es ..read more

Immigration Health Surcharge rising from 6 February 2024 The Home Office announced a 66% increase to the Immigration Health Surcharge in Autumn 2023. On Monday 15 January 2024, the Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2023 was approved in Parliament. It will come into force after 21 days, that is for all applications made from Tuesday 6 February 2024. What is the Immigration Health Surcharge? The Immigration Health Surcharge is a mandatory charge payable so that visa applicants have access to NHS care in the UK. It is paid upfront for the duration of the visa alongside the application ..read more

Are you worried about what will happen to your estate if you die without a Will? Has a loved one passed away without making a valid Will? If any of these events occur, the individual whether yourself or a loved one would have died intestate. What is intestate? Intestacy is where an individual has died without making a valid Will or a partial intestacy may occur if there is a Will however it has partially failed. The intestacy rules provide an order of priority for who can act in the administration and provides a framework for who can inherit from the deceased’s estate. Who will inherit if I do ..read more

On 4 December 2023, the Government announced a 5-point plan to cut net migration to the UK.  This included increasing the minimum income requirement for family visas from £18,600 gross per year to £38,700 gross per year for all applications from spring 2024. The Government yesterday published amended plans to change the minimum income requirement. Here is the link to the Home Office’s fact sheet published on 21.12.2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fact-sheet-on-net-migration-measures-further-detail What are the amended changes? The minimum income requirement will now increase in st ..read more

There can be a large number of people involved in a Court of Protection proceedings and many of the roles may be unfamiliar. We have pieced together the following information to provide a helpful guide to explain the purpose of an Accredited Legal Representative (ALR). At David Gray Solicitors, Emma Silburn and Claire Hunter are two members of our experienced Court of Protection team who are accredited legal representatives (ALR’s) under the Law Society’s Mental Capacity (Welfare) Accreditation Scheme. What is the role of an ALR? In Court of Protection proceedings, the person at the centre of ..read more

Christmas is a time for happiness, joy and celebration for lots of people. However, it can be a time of fear and sadness for many people as a result of domestic abuse. Increased domestic abuse at Christmas Each year, there is an increase in reports of domestic abuse over the festive period. This is often due to people drinking more alcohol, families experiencing more stress and pressure and families spending prolonged periods of time together. This increases the risk posed to victims of domestic abuse. In turn, this also increases the risk to children by virtue of them witnessing domestic abus ..read more

Are you dealing with an administration of an estate of someone who has died in the role as an executor or administrator? One of the requirements that you must follow is that you need to ensure that any beneficiary you distribute money to have not been declared bankrupt. Is the beneficiary bankrupt? If you do not carry out the correct checks or you mistakenly distribute an estate to a beneficiary who is bankrupt, then a claim could be brought against you by the trustee in bankruptcy to recover the money. A trustee in bankruptcy takes over the financial affairs of the bankrupt beneficiary and an ..read more

White Ribbon UK is part of the global White Ribbon movement to end men’s violence against women and girls. The Charity strives to address the root causes of men’s violence against women. They endeavour to change long-established attitudes, behaviours and systems around masculinity that perpetuate gender inequality and men’s violence against women, to try to prevent violence before it starts. White Ribbon UK encourages individuals to take the White Ribbon Promise, which is pledge never to use, excuse, or remain silent about violence against women. White Ribbon Day takes place on 25th November a ..read more

Using an expert in family law In Family proceedings concerning children, parties are required to ask the Court for permission to instruct any expert to give evidence in their case. However, this is restricted to evidence which is necessary to assist the Court to resolve the proceedings justly. What does it mean for evidence to be ‘necessary’ to assist the court? Expert evidence cannot just be reasonable or desirable to be considered necessary. A judge must consider it to be indispensable to resolving the contested issues rather than just optional. Simply put, expert evidence is necessary if, w ..read more

A Rise in the use of the Resolutions Model in Care Proceedings Within our practice in care proceedings, we are beginning to see an increase in the use of the “Resolutions Model” in non-accidental injury cases. Although the model has been around for many years, it has very rarely been used in our area. This is a model whereby a child could be returned to their parent(s), even if the Court has made findings that the parent has inflicted an injury to their child, or they cannot be ruled out of the pool of perpetrators. What is a pool of perpetrators? A pool of perpetrators is when there are two o ..read more