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Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 20 January 2023. Robert and his mother, Janice each own neighbouring properties. Robert moves-in with his mother to look after her and decides to rent-out his property. Robert’s work as a truck driver means that he is often away. David has been a good friend of Robert’s for many years and after Robert has problems with his tenants, he talks to David about moving-in. Robert says to David; “If you look after my mother when I’m not there, you can move into my property. All you need to do is pay the rates [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 23 December 2022. It’s gift giving time, so what better time to be reminded of your consumer rights? Meet Dean. Dean decides to buy his 16 year old son, Tom, speakers and an amplifier for Christmas. After Christmas, Tom has his mates over for a party. Disastrously, the speakers blow and the party is a “silent night.” The next day Dean takes the speakers back to the Speaker Shop, seeking a refund or replacement speakers. Charlotte, the Speaker Shop salesperson, questions Dean and Tom regarding the speaker use. Tom says “We were having [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 16 December 2022. Paul makes a will, appointing his best friend and business colleague, Michael as his executor. Paul appoints his brother David as his back-up executor. Paul leaves the whole of his estate to his wife and children. When Paul passes-away, Michael obtains a grant of probate and begins performing his executorial duties and administering Paul’s estate. Two years later, Michael resigns from his senior management role, for health reasons. Michael feels that now that he has effectively retired, he no longer wishes to act as Paul’s executor, despite the fact that [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 9 December 2022. John decides to sell his home and retains a real estate agent in early December. The property is promptly listed for sale. The agent meets with John several times at John’s house and finds John to be quite an easy-going man. The agent does not receive an offer on John’s house until May. John accepts the offer and drives to the agent’s office where he signs the Contract. The agent notices that John is quite agitated. The signed Contract is then forwarded to a solicitor who immediately attempts to contact [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 2 December 2022. Amanda and Robert meet each other in their early 50s and begin dating. After a few months, they consider themselves to be boyfriend and girlfriend. After Robert’s mother passes-away, he decides to move-in with this father, so that he can look after him. Shortly after moving-in, Robert invites Amanda to come and live with him and his father. Amanda and Robert give the house a thorough clean-up before she moves-in. They don’t pay rent. Unfortunately, after living together for six years, their relationship breaks down and they separate. Later that [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 25 November 2022. Leon and Megan had been married for 30 years, they lived in a large house overlooking a pristine river where they would often fish in their younger years. One morning Leon, who had not caught a fish for a long time, finally got one! Such was his surprise that Leon sadly died of a heart attack. Megan, unable to maintain the home without Leon, decides to live with her son Phil. She gives Phil $300,000 to build a granny flat on his property. Phil then made a promise to his sister, Nola, [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 18 November 2022. Steve and Sally were recently married and wisely decide to update their wills. Steve has no children but is very close to his nephew and his sister. Sally has three adult children to a previous relationship. Steve researches making an online will and after viewing several ads, decides to proceed, given that that the charges appear quite cheap. The online platform does not offer legal advice without an additional charge but the website suggests that the making of a will is relatively straight forward so he does not believe that [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 4 November 2022. John owns a 400-acre cattle farm. He resides in a home that he built on the farm and has conducted a successful business for the last 15 years. The farm was owned by John’s father and John grew up working on the property. John decides that it is time for him to transfer the property to his son, Peter with a view to him carrying on the family tradition as cattle farmers. The property is transferred to Peter and his wife by way of an intergenerational transfer and a small [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 28 October 2022. Julie and Brian had been married for 20 years. Brian owned a banana farm that had been in his family for generations. When updating their wills, they decided that their son, George would inherit the banana farm as he had worked on the farm since he left school. Julie is granted a right to reside at the farm for life. To compensate their daughter Anna, it was agreed that she would receive a greater share of their other assets. Julie and Brian also made powers of attorney nominating each other [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 21 October 2022. Jack lives up the hill, from his neighbour, Jill. They reside on adjoining lots, backing-on to each other and access is via different street frontages. The lots were initially subdivided 60 years ago. The plan of subdivision identifies a right of carriageway, 10 foot wide, running along Jill’s side boundary. The right of carriageway gives Jack the right to use the right of carriageway to travel between his lot and the road in front of Jill’s lot. However, fences were erected 35 years ago, preventing any vehicles from using the [...]