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Residential property

Conveyancing
You may be buying your first home, moving property or purchasing a holiday home but the excitement for you, has to be tempered with the need to ensure any legal requirements and processes are dealt with correctly and thoroughly.

Our specialist team deal with all aspects of residential conveyancing, whether you are buying or selling a property. They are qualified in all aspects of property law and are there to help provide smooth passage for your transaction and just as importantly, to make sure you avoid any pitfalls; protecting your interests at every stage from making an offer to receiving the keys.

They will explain everything you need to consider before collecting information and documentation from you to set the process in motion. This includes explaining any costs and expenses involved, such as Stamp Duty, VAT, Land Registry fees and Search fees.

We also understand the stress that can be part and parcel of buying or selling a property. Our specialists will make sure you receive information and updates only when you need them; keeping you in touch with progress and explaining what is happening as each stage is completed.

Remortgaging
Remortgaging is undertaken for a variety of reasons: switching to obtain a better deal or simply to increase the size of an existing mortgage to release funds to pay for home improvements, or other purposes. Whatever your reason for remortgaging, many of the same legal processes required to secure your original mortgage will apply on remortgaging.

An important aspect for many people remortgaging is that it is arranged quickly, especially if funds are required for a specific project. Our specialists will deal with the legal requirements as quickly as possible, while ensuring our first priority is always to protect your legal position.

Buy-to-Let
If you are considering purchasing property with a view to using it for buy-to-let purposes, it is vital that you take expert legal advice. When you purchase a property for renting out you are effectively starting a small business by becoming a landlord. As a result you will need to find tenants, check their references, collect rent and deal with any tenant disputes.

Our specialist practitioners can guide you through your legal responsibilities, such as carrying out repairs, maintaining the safe supply of gas and electricity and ensuring fire safety regulations for premises and furnishings are met. We can also draw up tenancy agreements, deal with tenant disputes, termination of leases (including “Notices to quit”) and if required, instigate eviction procedures.

Equity release
Our team of experts can guide you through the various issues surrounding equity release schemes, if you are considering releasing some of the equity in your home.

It is crucial to ensure the rights to your property are not compromised by the scheme you are considering and that the scheme is appropriate to your circumstances. Ideally you should also check that the scheme belongs to the Safe Home Income Plans (SHIP) Code of Practice.

You may also need to consider the impact on arrangements made in your Will and how the plan affects your inheritance tax situation. We can explain the benefits and potential problems of these arrangements and how they affect your estate.

Tenancy and lease arrangements
We provide help and advice on all aspects of Landlord and Tenancy law, including preparation of tenancy agreements and arrangements to terminate leases. We also advise landlords on how to deal with difficult tenants and provide assistance for tenants whose landlords are acting outside the law, or ignoring their responsibilities to tenants. We can also provide assistance in resolving disputes for either party.