The new coalition government of Lib Dems and Conservatives are expected to include in the awaited Emergency Budget confirmation that the stamp duty land tax holiday in respect of properties up to £250,000.00 granted  to first time buyers by the Labour administration until the 25^th March 2012 is to be extended indefinitely.

Also in accordance with their manifestos it is expected that HIPs will be abolished but Energy Performance Certificates (EPCS) retained.

We will have to wait and see.

Hopley Pierce & Bird attended the second Home Buyer’s Fair held at Glyndwr University.  The fair is designed to bring together all the expertise required by a potential buyer in one place then they can obtain useful information about the process.  The Partners and Staff were on hand to offer advice and assistance to people about the legal process involved in buying a house.  It appeared that many people don’t know where to start and we were able to point them in the right direction.  Hopley Pierce & Bird do offer a free half hour and if you wish to discuss a potential purchase please telephone our reception to book an appointment.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of our free raffle at the above event was Helen Griffiths.

The Chancellor of the exchequer has announced in today’s budget statement that the stamp duty land tax threshold is to be raised to £250000.00 for first time buyers.  This means that any first time buyer purchasing a property no more than £25000.00 will not have to pay any stamp duty land tax -  a maximum saving of £2250.00!

If you require any advice about your purchase or in particular stamp duty land tax and how it may affect you please telephone or email us.

There has been a lot in the media recently concerning will-writing companies and a debate over whether will-writingcompanies should be regulated.   Much of the public wrongly believe that will-writers are trained solicitors.

In addition to drawing up a will, will-writing companies are sometimes appointed to act as executors of the will and it has been reported that a test case is being brought to ascertain whether a family have the right to appoint whom they wish as an executor in place of the will-writing company appointed by the deceased.    The reason for the test case appears to be that the will- writing company will be charging twice as much for administering the estate as a competitive quote that has been obtained from a firm of solicitors.

In the meantime clients should be reassured that if they instruct us we are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the basis of our charges will be fair and reasonable and considerably less than those charged by banks or will-writing companies.

Eddie Vine the man responsible for the design of our website and other materials is running the Liverpool half marathon on 28th March 2010.  He is raising money for Combat Stress.  Combat Street specialises in the care of British Veterans who have been profoundly traumatised by harrowing experiences during their service.  We wish Eddie luck.

If you wish to sponsor Eddie please click on the following link

http://www.justgiving.com/eddie-Vine

A man was charged with criminal damage to two hamburgers for throwing them in the bin! A mix up in the order saw the two hamburgers arrive hours late and as a result Mr Morgan refused to pay for them.  As Mr Morgan had by then eaten he threw the hamburgers in the bin.  He was then arrested for robbery by a team of policeman.  It later came to light that the hamburgers did in fact belong to Mr Morgan and not the takeaway, as it was their policy not to charge for food if the order is wrong in anyway and as such he was within his rights to throw them away in any event!  An amusing story but a costly one to the public purse.

When your solicitor completes your purchase they are required to register you as the new owner at the land registry.  If you have taken out a mortgage details of this are also registered.  Importantly the price you paid is always registered.

The information held by the land registry is open to the public so anyone can obtain details of who owns your property and the price paid on payment of a small fee.

The land registry also licenses the information to various websites.

Their websites are useful tools to enable you to research current prices in a particular locality.  If you are thinking of making an offer on a property.

A few of the websites which supply information on prices are www.property.aol.zoopla.co.uk and www.nethouseprices.com

Partner Jacqui Marsland along with Nicola Jones solicitor attended the Motov8 day held at Glyndwr University.  The day was organised by the North Wales NHS trust and was arranged to promote the nations health and to give advice to those with mental health problems.  Jacqui and Nicola were on hand to give people advice about Lasting Powers of Attorneys, general Wills and Wills for parents whose children have health problems.  If you would like advice about any of these matters please contact the office

Congratulations to Gemma Davies who won the jogger/exercise trampoline following our raffle yesterday.  Thank you to every who attended the event which was a great success.