Transferring a Farm
We recently had a query about a mother who wishes to transfer a farm to her daughter. There are transfer duty exemptions for transfers of farming property to relations, including trusts of which relations are beneficiaries, as long as no one other than family members are the beneficiaries. The exemption is not available if the […]
Sale of Share Agreements
We are helping some long-term clients with the exit of the main business partner via a buy out from the more junior partners. The principle documents will be a share sale agreement and a new shareholder agreement. However, we are in a tricky situation because of the potential for conflict. We need to decide who […]
Bequest of Houses
Another case was handed down involving the bequest of a house where the house had been sold prior to the testator’s death. Usually, the gift simply fails, because the testator is assumed to realise the implications, but in this case, the owner was legally incapacitated and an administrator had been appointed to manage his affairs. […]
Stressful Court Case
We were seeking an adjournment of a hearing which was set for last Friday, due to one of our clients having had a recent double mastectomy and being told not to do anything too stressful. The Claimant would not agree to an adjournment, because her husband is dying and she wanted it out of the […]
Quick & Efficient Resolution of Court Cases
We received instructions to assist a client at short notice to set aside a default judgment which had been given against them in the Magistrates Court. There was a hearing listed for the next Friday morning at 11.00am. The client had done a reasonable job, but there were some holes which we were able to […]
SAT Applications for Disabled Children
We saw a new client whose 30 year old daughter has Downs syndrome. The daughter is not mentally capable of managing her own affairs, but has $220,000 in the bank from her disability pension and work that she does as a cleaner for the Police under an assisted placement programme. Her mother wants to buy […]
Case Summary Mcgeough v Ian Torrington Blatchford as administrator of the estate of Margaret Mary Mcgeough [2019] WASC 454
This court case illustrates why these sorts of family provision matters should settle, particularly for a small estate. The first 132 paragraphs deal with the facts. From that, the Judge concluded that adequate provision had not been made for the reasons given in paragraphs 133 to 142. Note that the test is not limited to […]
Winery Purchase
In what can only be described as a good sign, we are acting on the purchase of a winery for a client. The client is buying the business and the land. Catharine and Neo Settlements ( https://www.neosettlements.com.au/ ) will handle the property side of the transaction, while we will handle the business side. Hopefully the […]
Building Dispute
We are dealing with a building dispute. We are concerned the building company involved will drag out the matter, and then go into liquidation. So this week we’ve been investigating what recourse our client might have. We will be able to sue the registered builder behind the company, for negligence. He failed to properly supervise […]
Beware of the Fine Print when a Trust gives a Guarantee!
We recently dealt with a guarantee that was being given by our client’s in their capacity as trustees of a discretionary trust. There is a small clause in the guarantee that makes them personally liable under the guarantee, not just the trust: “You declare that you are not signing this guarantee and indemnity as a […]