7 Legal Issues

The diet theme for 2015 is, if you want to be a healthier, happier version of yourself, change your lifestyle. By applying this principle to your business and making a few changes you could help your business get fighting fit for 2015 and beyond. Here are the 7 legal issues you should not delay another year.

1. Begin by getting your house in order. Put Powers of Attorney in place for all the directors and other bank signatories of the business. Businesses can collapse if something happens to key people, and no-one can then instruct bank transactions, etc. In the same vein, get that Shareholders Agreement done that you have always promised to do. When something happens, sadly it is all too common for “understandings” to be misunderstood, not agreed or whatever. Get it in writing and put it beyond doubt.

2. Get it in writing applies equally to a Contract of Employment. A verbal Contract of Employment is just as valid but a written Contract is always better. Do you have time to argue with employees about their job description or hours of work?

3. Do your employees work overtime or different working patterns or receive commission, bonus or travel allowances? Get to grips with holiday pay calculations and what additional payments and allowances must be included to avoid or limit the impact of any holiday pay claims. If you’re not aware of the recent changes in this area, find out now.

Get to grips with holiday pay calculations and what additional payments and allowances must be included to avoid or limit the impact of any holiday pay claims.

4. Dig out your lease from the back of the filing cabinet and remind yourself of the detail. Specifically, landlords and tenants should know key event dates of their leases e.g. the date when the lease ends or the date by when a landlord or tenant must exercise a right to end a lease early. As leases usually don’t automatically end or end early, it is equally important to know the last date by when notices need to be sent. You should then make a separate diary entry at least two months in advance of that date to contact your lawyer to send out the notices. You may need to check with your solicitor or surveyor to find out these dates.

5. Does your business sell goods or services to consumers? The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 came into effect on 13 June 2014 and fundamentally affect the way in which businesses need to contract with consumers. Many reputable traders might not even have used written contracts up to now. That is no longer a sensible option. Non-compliance carries potential criminal liability for your business, and personally for its directors or partners and its senior managers. Even if you are lucky enough not to be prosecuted and fined, non-compliance can also mean any contracts are cancellable for a year, even if you have long since supplied the goods and services.

6. Be careful not to unwittingly give anything away in 2015. Businesses are usually too busy to get worried about neighbouring occupiers parking on disused land, making minor changes to boundaries or other minor property infractions. They should be, as many such changes can, with the passage of time, result in neighbours acquiring new rights or loss of land. Tenants could find themselves in breach of their lease by not objecting in time. Owners could find themselves losing land that, whilst not valuable right now, could become of critical importance in the future.

7. Finally, think beyond 2015 and the possibilities that await. If you are thinking of selling, when will that be? It is much easier to sell a “neat and tidy” business – and you can’t do housekeeping at the last minute. So, take time out and think of longer term plans.