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From this date, all employers will be required to follow a new thirteen-step procedure. If they miss out any of the steps, or get any of them wrong, an Employment Tribunal will almost certainly find a dismissal unfair no matter how serious the misconduct of the sacked employee, and that will cost you up to £55,000 in compensation, the current ‘cap’ on Tribunal awards.

So, if an employee steals from the till, assaults you and then vandalises your shop, you could end up having to pay him tens of thousands of pounds in compensation if you do not use the new, compulsory dismissal procedure. You need to have a full working knowledge of the procedure, and have everything in place well before October so that you are not caught out.

If you do follow the new rules to the letter, you will be protecting yourself from this sort of claim, and protecting your cash flow too. Call John King on 01332 676 880 for advice on the new rules, and start putting the correct procedures in place now.

The critical thing here is to be sure it is in the paperwork BEFORE a contract is made. It is therefore often best to put it in right at the start when the order is made. But how do we prove, on the web, that the other person has seen it?

It is thought to be best to have a button whereby people have to click on Yes to the question “Have you read, understood and agree our terms and conditions” with a scrolling page containing them. They should not be allowed to go on with an order until they have said “Yes”.

Our Advice? Make sure you have small print written specifically for your business. Don’t copy someone else! - you could be taken to court for doing so. Use a lawyer who understands your business - and certainly for on-line small print also understands how people buy on the internet – so that they avoid legal jargon, use plain English and produce small print that protects you without tying things up so tightly no one will every buy from you.

The new, transparent procedure clarifies some of the terms of a 1954 Act which gave business tenants the right to stay on in their property after the end of the contractual term of their lease - but was fraught with traps for the unwary. The changes also clarify matters for landlords too.

So what do the changes mean for the average business leaseholder?

• Under the new procedure, a lease will automatically come to an end if the tenant moves out on the last day of the lease.
• If the tenant stays on then the lease is continued on the same terms until either party serves a statutory notice.
• If a tenant wants to end the lease they must serve no less than three months notice at any time stating that they want to end the continuation tenancy at the end of the notice period.
• If a tenant wants to apply for a new lease then they must serve at least six months and no more than 12 months notice on the landlord stating their proposals for a new tenancy.

The new law applies to any lease as from 1st June 2004. If notices have been served prior to that date then the old regime will apply, but all notices served after that date are covered by the new regime.

Hannah Mackinlay, our commercial property specialist, can advise on all matters relating to leases and tenancy agreements.

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