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Duty of care in tort not established in favour of main contractor from third party sub consultant

Summary

The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 (the Regulations) are effective from 4 May 2021. Whilst this will provide residential tenants with additional procedural protection in respect of rent arrears, this will be an unwelcome additional hurdle to landlords.

What do the Regulations do?

On 24 March 2021, further extensions were announced to the range of government measures aimed at protecting UK companies and directors affected by COVID-19.

Measures extended to 30 June 2021

The new Pre-Pack Regulations have been approved by the UK Parliament and are due to come into effect on 30 April 2021 for administrations commencing from then.

The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled that a limited partner is not liable for debts incumbent on the insolvency estate incurred by an administrator in insolvency proceedings.

However, it was unclear who would be liable for debts incumbent on the insolvency estate pursuant to section 55(4) of the German Insolvency Act (the Act) incurred in preliminary insolvency proceedings. A recent BGH ruling on 28 January 2021 (IX ZR 54/20) now provides clarity.

Case summary

Austria is moving forward with plans to implement the directive on preventive restructuring frameworks. The draft new law implementing the changes was published in February 2021.

The focus of the draft law is to introduce preventive restructuring proceedings. This will provide a structure for pre-insolvency restructuring to allow for the cram-down of dissenting creditors provided certain conditions are met.

Key points of the current draft

On 24 March 2021, further extensions were announced to the range of government measures aimed at protecting UK companies and directors affected by COVID-19.

Measures extended to 30 June 2021

In 2014, Accelerated Payment Notices (“APNs”) were introduced by the Government under the Finance Act 2014, allowing HMRC to request upfront payments on account of disputed tax and/or National Insurance contributions relating to certain tax avoidance schemes.

Although the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, the impact of Brexit on cross-border insolvencies was largely postponed until the end of the transition period at 11pm on 31 December 2020.

The UK is now designated as a "third country" from the perspective of the EU, directly applicable EU laws and regulations no longer apply, and the Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement does not deal with cross-border insolvencies. As such, insolvency practitioners may now be left feeling that they are effectively in a "no-deal" scenario.

Background

The worldwide Covid 19 pandemic has touched and affected us all in many different ways. In this blog I will look at how those of us who work in debt recovery need to take on board the impact the pandemic has had on mental health and factor that into their strategies. Mental health cannot be ignored as my partner, Cory Bebb, wrote in his recent blog