Rossendale Borough Council v Hurstwood Properties & ors [2020] WTLR 253

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Spring 2020 #178

Two schemes to avoid the payment of National Non-domestic Rates (NDR), by granting a short lease of unoccupied properties to special purpose vehicle companies (SPVs), which were then allowed to be dissolved, either by voluntary winding up or as dormant companies. Under the NDR legislation, the liability to pay rates on unoccupied property fell on the ‘owner’, being the person entitled to possession, which would include a lessee. However, properties owned by a company being wound up voluntarily were excluded under the applicable Regulations from being subject to NDR at all.

The cla...

Burnden Holdings (UK) Ltd v Fielding & anr [2018] WTLR 379

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Summer 2018 #172

This appeal arose from an application by the defendants for summary judgment, dismissing the claim on the ground that it was statute-barred. The claim was for (and was for the purposes of the application assumed to have been) an unlawful distribution by the claimant company six years and three days before the issue of the claim form. Although, by the time of the hearing but after permission had been given to appeal, the claimant had amended its claim to include an allegation of fraud, so that there could not be summary judgment, the court considered the issue as to the meaning of s23...