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Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 5 April 2024. Betty passed-away 20 years ago. She appointed her son, Daniel as her executor and left half of her estate to her granddaughter. The granddaughter’s inheritance was approximately $150,000. Betty’s will stated that her executor was to hold her granddaughter’s inheritance on trust, until she turned 21. She recently attained that age. Due to an estrangement, the granddaughter seeks legal advice regarding the funds held on trust by her father. Her solicitor writes to Daniel but does not receive a response. Proceedings are commenced in the Supreme Court. Daniel does not [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 11 November 2022. Susie and John are high school sweethearts. They marry young and shortly after, their son Joey is born. Unfortunately, their marriage begins to deteriorate when Joey is only 2 years old. In anticipation that they will soon divorce, John makes a non-lapsing Binding Death Benefit Nomination (BDBN) with his superannuation company, Super Super, in which he nominates Joey to receive all of his Super if he dies. Six months after John makes the BDBN, he and Susie are formally divorced. John moves out of the matrimonial home and he sees [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 5 August 2022. Joel and Jenny found an ideal block to build their family home. They sold their old home, to finance the build. Jenny was lucky enough to find a rental property close to the block, so they could send their children to their new school and watch over the build. They signed a standard building contract with the builder, which specified the commencement date and a completion date 180 days post commencement. The project began on time but delays resulting from inclement weather and the supply of materials meant that the [...]

Article by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 10 June 2022. Max and Dave were joint owners of a café business. They both executed a retail lease, which had 3 years to run with an option to renew for an additional 5 years. Max had a young family and found it difficult to juggle work, kids and surfing, so he decided to sell his share in the business to Dave. Dave wrote to the Landlord, requesting consent to Max assigning the lease and making Dave solely responsible for the lease. A couple of weeks went by, and Dave had not heard [...]

Hypothetical by Manny Wood published in the Coffs Coast News Of The Area on 22 April 2022. David was very excited when he decided to start his own business, being a retro sneaker shop. He found a property that was previously an architect's office located next to several cafés and retail stores with plenty of foot traffic. David signed a three year lease with an option to renew. The lease required him to pay the legal costs of the preparation of the lease. After two months of trading, David noticed that the shelving was falling off the walls and that skirting boards were lifting. David rearranged the [...]