News & views
Articles by our experts
Homeowners given new protection
Vanderpump & Sykes Solicitors are highlighting to homeowners that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has introduced new rules to ensure individuals who fall behind with their mortgage payments receive fair treatment from their lenders.
Jenny Howe, solicitor in the Litigation department at Vanderpump & Sykes, said “Once an agreement for repaying the arrears has been made, firms must not apply a monthly fee, and the payments made have to be used for the mortgage instead of charges, which can be repaid later.
Lenders will also need to record all calls with homeowners who are in arrears and keep them for three years”.
New rules have also been introduced for sale and rent back arrangements, where an individual sells their home, but remains as a tenant.
High-pressure sales techniques are now forbidden, as are cold calling and leaflet drops. Customers will have a 14-day cooling off period, as well as a guaranteed tenure of at least five years. This will stop unprincipled firms from evicting tenants after 6-12 months, as has previously been the case.
For further information about Vanderpump & Sykes Litigation services, see Solicitors Directory
Last minute scramble for equality
The Equality Bill finally became law in the scramble to rush through legislation in the final hours before Parliament was dissolved in the run up to the General Election.
In the main, the Act just consolidates and simplifies existing discrimination law, but it does extend existing law in certain areas too.
The Act now protects a person against being discriminated against, harassed or victimised because of a protected characteristic. The protected characteristics are age, disability, gender re-assignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
Most of the provisions of the Act will take effect on 1 st October 2010 as the Equality Act 2010. The most important changes introduced by the Act are:
It introduces the concept of combined discrimination where an employer discriminates against a person because of two protected characteristics. These provisions will not take effect until April 2011.
Pre-employment health questions are another important area of change. If a prospective employee is turned down for a job and later alleges disability discrimination, it will be for the employer to prove that there was no discrimination if the rejected employee alleges that the employer asked questions about their health when considering them for employment.
The Act does not remove the default retirement age of 65, but this is under review. It is likely that the default retirement age will either be raised or scrapped altogether, in due course.
Employment Tribunals may now make recommendations as to the action to be taken by an employer to stop discrimination, even if those actions cannot benefit the aggrieved employee.
The Act contains powers to introduce regulations at some time in the future requiring businesses that employ more than 250 persons to publish details comparing the pay of males with that of females.
A term in an employee’s contract which prevents them from discussing their pay will be unenforceable if the discussion is about whether an employee’s pay is connected to a protected characteristic such as age or gender.
Positive discrimination will now be allowed at the time of employing or promoting a person, so if a company reasonably believes that it does not have enough women on its board, it will be able to pick a candidate for the job on the ground that she is a woman, provided she is as well qualified as the other candidate or candidates.
The Act paves the way for introducing a single equality duty for public sector employers. The duty will require public sector bodies to adopt policies to: eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation ; advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a particular protected characteristic and those who do not.
Richard Stephens, partner in the employment department, says: “The Equality Act 2010 is important because it consolidates the existing anti-discrimination legislation and by providing for things such as positive discrimination and transparency on pay, it sets up a framework for developing anti-discrimination policy in the future."
To contact Vanderpump & Sykes, see them in the
Divorce Aid Legal Directory
Click this link to view our extensive
archive of our experts' articles
DPS Software
This is a quality supplier of bespoke IT solutions for the Legal
industry. With over 20 years specialist experience, their Case Management
and Legal Accounting programs have assisted many established and start-up
legal firms integrate their business operations for success.
To speak to a Legal IT professional call 020 8804 1022, or to see a
full rangeof products and services online,
see DPS Software
website.