Following the Equality Act 2010 in October this year there is not a more crucial year to get your Christmas employment practices right to avoid the Tribunal in the New Year.

There are a number of areas where you might wish an employee to either live in your house or in a property owned by you as part of their employment. The obvious examples being a butler or housekeeper, a nanny, a property manager, a caretaker, a cleaner, a pub manager, a carer or an agricultural farm worker.

Natalie Roach of Beechwood Solicitors has written an article in The Oxford Times, inbusiness about Compromise agreements.

As from 1 October 2010 all of the employment discrimination legislation is embodied in one all singing all dancing Act, the Equality Act 2010. This identifies, unifies and simplifies 9 major pieces of employment legislation covering race, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion and religious belief and equal pay into one cohesive Act. It clarifies the definitions of direct, indirect and disability discrimination as well as those of victimisation and harassment. 

Landlords and managing agents should be reminded to consider consulting with tenants before entering into contracts to provide services or carry out works relating to residential properties. In a recent High Court case, a management company entered into a 25-year agreement with a third party service provider to provide maintenance services for flats without consulting the tenants. The court decided that the management company could only recover a maximum of £100 from each flat tenant per year.

In the Budget the Chancellor introduced a welcome holiday for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for first time buyers, in a bid to stimulate the market.