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If you are the beneficiary of a trust and you are dissatisfied about the way in which an appointed trustee is acting, then it is important for you to understand your options for holding them to account.  Your concerns may relate to the mismanagement of trust assets, the preferential treatment being shown to other beneficiaries, the unlawful disposal of trust property, the unacceptable dissipation of trust funds or even the suspected misappropriation of trust income.

As Nick Timmings, Partner with Petersfields LLP explains, ‘There are a number of steps that you can take to have your concerns about a trustee addressed.  These range from asking them to explain their actions and provide certain information, to applying to the court to have them forcibly removed from their position and replaced with someone else.’

However, it is vital that you consider your options carefully and take specialist legal advice in order to achieve the best outcome and prevent a disagreement escalating into a formal dispute.

What might have started out looking like a small and innocuous plant to your neighbour can soon grow into a substantial hedge that extends well beyond their boundary, albeit innocently, reducing the amount of land which you can enjoy.  On the other hand, it is not unknown for neighbours to deliberately erect a fence or build a wall beyond what you believe to be the agreed boundary line.

‘If you think your neighbour has encroached onto land belonging to you, then there are a series of steps you can take to determine whether this is in fact the case,’ says Dawn Kiddy, dispute resolution lawyer with Petersfields LLP in Cambridge and Haverhill, who outlines the steps you can take to achieve a resolution by claiming the land back or securing appropriate compensation.

The risk of flooding in England and Wales is increasing year on year and exposing millions of homeowners to the possibility of property damage and the consequent misery that this causes.  In some cases, there is nothing you can do but try to claim on your insurance, assuming that you have managed to get cover in place.

It tends to be only in Hollywood movies that a will is read aloud, usually for dramatic effect where the contents of the will are unexpected and lead to the sort of tensions which create a good plot. For example, in the 2019 film ‘Knives Out’ the patriarch cuts his entire family out of his will in favour of his caregiver.