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Welcome to the Summer issue of our Private Client newsletter “A PRIVATE WORD”, helping to keep you up-to-date with a quarterly round-up of news from the legal world.
It’s July already; the longest day has been and gone; England are set to take on Australia to try to reclaim the Ashes and the Queen has just celebrated her ‘official’ birthday, which brings us nicely onto the subject of corgis, or rather CORGI.
Did you know that the national body for regulating gas safety in Britain changed on 1 April 2009? CORGI has been replaced by a new scheme called the Gas Safe Register. All engineers carrying out gas related work will need to be registered with the new scheme to legally continue trading. As with CORGI, you can verify a gas engineer’s credentials by checking online at www.gassaferegister.co.uk or by calling 0800 408 5500. Recent research by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) shows that 25 people die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning or suffer health problems from exposure to this deadly gas. Poorly maintained, repaired or fitted gas appliances are a major cause of carbon monoxide poisoning and landlords of rented accommodation have specific duties under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 to properly inspect and service gas installations on an annual basis. If you are a landlord, HSE has issued a warning concerning maintaining gas appliances in a safe condition following the successful prosecution of a landlady who failed to do just this in one of her properties. You can read the full story on our website, but suffice it to say the fine came in at £5,000 plus more than £3,000 in costs which makes the message clear for landlords: don’t cut back on safety checks; not only do you risk substantial costs, you could risk lives. A new tax year is upon us and there is never a better time to start thinking about putting some initiatives in place to help manage your money and make it a little more fruitful for you. There is an article on our website this month offering suggestions on how you can make the most of allowances and investments and it’s well worth a read. If information is in the public domain – i.e. on a website – does this mean it is public property? In the majority of cases, no. If you have found some material on a website that you’d like to re-publish, you need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder beforehand, a task that is not always straightforward as there is no register of copyright holders. However, difficult as it may be, it is still necessary otherwise you could be subject to legal action for unauthorised use of copyrighted material. If you are looking to re-publish some material but are having trouble locating the copyright owner, the article on our website this month offers some useful advice. Registering a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is renowned for being a complex and costly process so it will come as a relief to many that as of 1 April 2009, the Government has made the paperwork simpler and has reduced the registration fee from £150 to £120. A Lasting Power of Attorney is an insurance policy for your future financial and care interests. If you would like advice on making sure your best interests are taken care of in the event that you become unable to deal with them yourself, contact us.
We hope you have found this newsletter interesting and informative. If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised - or need help with any other legal matter - please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Lastly, enjoy the sunshine! It’s warm, it’s bright, it makes you feel good – and best of all – it’s completely free! Let’s hope it lasts until September when we’ll be in touch with the autumn edition. | 
