The process of replacing the Insolvency Rules 1986 and 28 subsequent amendments has necessarily involved difficult balancing exercises between the interests of numerous stakeholders, but the general consensus among creditors is that The Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 (SI 2016/1024) (“IR 2016”) which came into force on 6 April 2017 are likely to significantly improve the insolvency process for most creditors.
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The implementation of the supplemental 3% stamp duty land tax (‘SDLT’) charge came into force on 1 April 2016. Bermans has previously looked at the impact of the higher rates of SDLT, particularly in relation to its effect on individual joint purchasers, in an article that can be found here. In this article we look at the charges in relation to companies, partnerships, trusts and inherited properties.
Continue ReadingThe Regime
The current legislation in relation to data protection in England and Wales is the Data Protection Act 1998 which was derived from the European wide Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is due to come into force in May 2018. Whilst many of the provisions are already covered by the Data Protection Act, there are important new provisions of which businesses need to be aware.
Continue ReadingBermans recently held an exclusive “Ladies Evening” at Boodles, Lord Street in Liverpool.
The night was a great success, with guests admiring Boodles’ stunning collections whilst drinking champagne and mixing with other female professionals.
Continue ReadingWe met up with Jack Barmby (pictured below), Founder & CEO of multichannel customer interaction company, Gnatta, to find out about his typical working day, business challenges, and what he would do if he was chancellor.
Jack graduated in 2014 and has been focused on learning the keys to disruptive growth. His background comes in the form of social media consultancy during his University studies, and since has paved the way to re-imagine and reshape the way businesses and customers talk to each other through the use of Gnatta. This, as well as growing an outsourcing customer service team of 350, FM Outsource and Gnatta give businesses all around the UK and the world the ability to connect with their customers more effectively than ever.
1. What is your business?
Gnatta is a web based application that let’s businesses deliver a more intelligent customer service solution. We act as a thin layer between the customer and the customer service team to help ensure the business is answering the right customers at the right time. Focused on large scale customer service operations, Gnatta will automate a large part of the information gathering and routing that teams would otherwise have to facilitate, letting the advisors focus wholly on the customer query, helping provide a service that works for the customer and the business.
2. Which solicitors do you use at Bermans and how do we compare to other firms?
We’ve been working with Jon Davage as part of our demerger. Jon and the team have been phenomenal with quick turnaround and a really high standard of work.
3. What are the biggest challenges you face in growing your business and maintaining profits?
For us it’s all about sales. From day one we’ve been a product first business focused on delivering a product that is ahead of the market, fit for purpose and can wow our clients. Where we’ve spent a lot less time is in developing our sales pipeline; profits have been invested back into product development but our sales strategy as yet, hasn’t matured. We’re profitable and are making a product fit for the market and a leader in its sector, but to continue to grow we need to find the right people that need the solution we provide.
4. Tell us about your typical working day?
It’s a mix of helping resolve BAU issues with clients, speaking with new prospects and thinking about the strategic direction going forward. As a quick developing team, most of my time is taken up in helping keep everybody focussed and keep the team working synchronously as we continue to grow.
5. What has been a highlight for Gnatta over the last 12 months?
As a product first team, it’s got to be some of the features we’ve implemented. We’ve had some great clients wins including Missguided and ASOS, but we’ve been really excited about our AI functionality that we can start rolling out to our customers. AI is a new endeavour for businesses, and our take on it is going to be a real game changer; we can implement AI to get involved in the customer journey only in very specific scenarios to make the customer journey slicker. For example, let’s say you want to know where your order is, the bot will ask you for DPA information instantly, and once it has it (or can’t get it) it’ll pass that to a team member to give you the personalised service. Customer wins, business wins.
6. What are your plans for Gnatta for the year ahead?
We’ve got a great product, but we’re never as far ahead as we’d like to think and so the answer must come in two parts. Firstly, we need to keep developing new, exciting things that wow people, because if we’re not doing it, someone else out there is. Secondly we need to mature our sales process and get some new clients involved and on board; we know we can provide something truly innovative and we’d love the opportunity to show what we can do to more businesses.
7. Is there a sector or industry that you are strong in or looking to develop opportunities?
We’ve had great success in fashion retail and would love to develop into other retail sectors. Any business who has a strong digital presence on multiple channels would benefit from using Gnatta.
8. Do you find social media assists your business and if so, how?
Certainly! A big arm of what we provide is a platform for businesses to speak to their customer via social. One of our focuses is the impact of social for businesses. As a medium to let a customer vent, compliment, berate or otherwise a business or product with no barriers or say from the business, it impacts everyone in a massive way.
9. If you were chancellor, what single change would you make to help improve the economy and/or your business?
I’d love to implement a system where startups had access to development resource. Big businesses would be obliged to contribute a small portion of their development resource to small start ups (validated by the system first, of course) to give them chance to get their ideas off the ground. How many people do you know with a great idea that will never have the capital of attraction to get the right talent to get a prototype? Imagine the number great ideas would crop up if the barriers to entry in terms of development resource were lowered.
10. What are your passions away from business?
I’ve always had a big swimming background, so I like keeping fit. That aside, I yoyo between reading socioeconomic behavioural books and epic fantasties (not the classic combo), spending time with friends and family and networking with like minded guys and girls.
Whether you’re looking to better understand and listen to your customers, improve your customer experiences across all channels, seeking a third party customer service provider or planning a social engagement campaign, contact Gnatta:
t: 0333 344 0659
Twitter: @Gnatta
Connect on: LinkedIn
WANT TO BE FEATURED NEXT TIME?
To feature your company in the next issue please contact our Marketing Assistant, Emma Bartram on 0151 224 0506 or email emma.bartram@bermans.co.uk
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Continue ReadingDom Raban is the MD of Corporation Pop, a digital innovation agency. He has been creating ‘stuff’ for nearly 40 years, from punk fanzines in the 1970s to content for emerging technology platforms now. Currently Corporation Pop are working on several Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) projects, including an app for child patients that helps reduce the stress associated with hospitalisation by increasing familiarisation with staff, environments and procedures.
Continue ReadingThe Supreme Court has recently issued a decision in the case of Ilott v Mitson turning on the interpretation of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (the Act ). In England and Wales a testator can choose to distribute their estate to anyone subject to the possibility of an excluded person bringing a claim under the Act.
The Court may decide to make financial provision for a dependent of the deceased be it a child, spouse, or former spouse if the Court concludes that the testator failed to make adequate financial provision for them. Such a claim is more likely to succeed if the Claimant is receiving state benefits.
Continue ReadingIn the recent case of CRJ Services Limited v Lanstar Limited [2011] EWHC 972 (TCC) the lessee disputed liability under 3 Lease Agreements on the grounds that the signatory did not have authority to enter into the Agreements.
The problem for the lessee was that although the signatory was not an employee, he was engaged as a consultant and given the title “Landfill Manager” to run a landfill site operated by the lessee. It was common ground that in this capacity he had actual authority to enter into short term Hire Agreements with the Financier for various items of plant, but it was the lessee’s case that he had no actual or implied authority to enter into long term hire contracts. Nevertheless the signatory entered into two 3 year contracts and a 2 year contract for the hire of plant all of which contained terms that if the lessee terminated the arrangement before the expiry of the fixed period of hire it would be liable to pay 60% of the agreed hire rates for the remaining periods of hire.
The lessee claimed that it had no knowledge that these 3 long term contracts had been signed, and had effected payments on the assumption that as with the short term hire contracts rentals were payable on a monthly basis but without any long term commitment.
When the signatory left his engagement with the lessee as a result of an acrimonious dispute the lessee’s solicitors did not improve the lessee’s prospects of being able to avoid liability by writing to the Financier and stating inter alia that the signatory “…was the Landfill Materials and Recycling Facilities Manager…[and] was required to “run things by” the Finance and Managing Directors”.
The court had little difficulty in rejecting the lessee’s arguments that the signatory to the Hire Agreements lacked the necessary authority to bind the lessee. There was no suggestion that the lessee had taken any steps to inform the Financier that there were limits on the signatory’s authority, and at no stage had the lessee protested or withheld any payments during the periods of hire before termination. Thus although the signatory had no actual authority to contract for long term hire, he clearly had apparent authority on the principles set out by the Court of Appeal in Freeman & Lockyer v Buckhurst Park Properties (Mangal) Ltd [1964] 2 QB 480:-
“An “apparent” or “ostensible” authority…is a legal relationship between the principal and the contractor created by a representation, made by the principal to the contractor, intended to be and in fact acted upon by the contractor, that the agent has authority to enter on behalf of the principal into a contract of a kind within the scope of the “apparent” authority, so as to render the principal liable to perform any obligations imposed upon him by such contract…
The representation which creates “apparent” authority may take a variety of forms of which the commonest is representation by conduct, that is by permitting the agent to act in some way in the conduct of the principal’s business with other persons. By so doing the principal represents to anyone who becomes aware that the agent is so acting that the agent has authority to enter on behalf of the principal into contracts with other persons of the kind which an agent so acting in the conduct of his principal business has usually “actual” authority to enter into.”
Comment
The key point in this case is that the lessee by its conduct in allowing the signatory to enter into short term hire contracts effectively clothed him with apparent or ostensible authority to enter into long term hire contracts as well. It would have been different if the signatory had no actual authority to enter into short term contracts either.
An agent or employee cannot clothe himself or herself with authority: the essential point is that it must be the lessee itself which has done some act or made some statement which has the effect of clothing the agent or employee with apparent or ostensible authority.
Thus it is good practice to ensure that in any case of doubt as to the actual authority of a signatory to a Hire Agreement there should be some communication with the Directors or others with senior management responsibility to confirm that the proposed signatory has indeed authority to contract on behalf of the lessee.
Even in cases where actual or ostensible authority in the signatory is lacking it may still be possible to establish liability if the lessee subsequently ratifies its involvement in an Agreement, for example by using the equipment and making payments with knowledge of the lack of authority in the signatory.
Continue ReadingConsumer Credit
Whilst it is too early to predict the likely effects of Brexit on legal issues in the asset finance industry, it is worth noting that much of the current legislation affecting consumer credit derives from EU Directives.
Continue ReadingA difficult point of consumer credit law has for some years been the extent to which a one-off or occasional series of transactions may be subject to the need for licensing or authorisation. The issue arose in the recent High Court case of Newmafruit Farms Ltd v Pither [2016] EWHC 2205.
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