Szabo & Associates News & Updates

Eligibility to lodge a family provision claim, where a person feels they have not been adequately provided for from an estate, is limited to some key groups, including children of a deceased person. This means that an estranged adult child who has lost contact with their parent is eligible to contest a Will. However, it does not necessarily mean an application will be successful.

Noise can be a common source of contention between neighbours. ‘Offensive noise’ that interferes unreasonably with a neighbour’s comfort could be caused by its intensity, type, or the time when it occurs. If this is happening, it is usually preferable to discuss this amicably with your neighbour to find a solution. However, if they are uncooperative, what can you do about it?

Most lease agreements allow landlords to give notice to terminate a lease for a breach of its terms. A tenant must remedy a breach within a reasonable period of time after service of the notice. What constitutes a reasonable period of time to remedy the breach will, however, depend on the circumstances.

The recent case of Middleton v Schofield (2022) NSWSC 1454 demonstrates the importance, once again, of being precise in a Will if disputes are to be avoided. This issue was primarily about the use of extrinsic information to interpret the meaning of a Will. Was the reference to a real property called ‘Caringa’ one property or three contiguous properties customarily known as Caringa?

A Council, under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, can issue an environmental prevention notice if it ‘reasonably suspects that an activity has been or is being carried out in an environmentally unsatisfactory manner at any premises or by any person’. The aim is to ensure that the activity if carried on in the future, is done so in an environmentally satisfactory manner.