Divorce proceedings and your Will If you have commenced divorce proceedings but not finalised them then your Will is still valid. However, your former spouse is treated as if they “died” on the day the decree absolute is granted by the Court. That means any gift in the Will falls back into the residue for […]
Consideration of Pets in your Will We are a nation of pet lovers with approximately 12 million households having pets with 51 million pets owned. They are part of the family and very important to us, so it seems right we should give them some consideration when it comes to preparing our Wills. So what […]
There are more than 6 million cohabiting couples in the UK and the number is rising. However, despite how common an occurrence it now is, problems can arise frequently for these couples upon death or separation. If you are co-habiting, you do not have the same rights as a married couple; and contrary to popular […]
DIY Probate Pitfalls In 2017 there were 95,000 applications for a Grant of Representation by individuals; that is for Probate where there is a Will, or Letters of Administration on intestacy or other reasons. This compares with 155,000 applications through a Solicitor or alternative business structures. The person taking the Grant is called “The Personal […]
Second Marriages We know that circumstances around a second marriage are more complicated than the first. There are often children from a previous relationship to consider, as well as assets you have acquired during your first marriage – for example property, savings and a pension pot. Upon your second marriage you will need to create […]
Did you know that your estate can now benefit from a new Inheritance Tax exemption? The new IHT Residence Nil Rate Band (RNRB) is in addition to an individual’s own Nil Rate Band, currently £325,000. The new RNRB is currently £100,000 and will increase by £25,000 each tax year until 2020/21. This new exemption will […]
In recent months, some homes in the UK have been reported as almost unsaleable due to doubling ground rents. Traditionally, houses have been sold as ‘freehold’ meaning that homeowners own the whole of their home and have complete control over it. However in recent years, some developers, more predominantly in the North West area of […]
Several years ago I was dealing with the estate of a gentleman who had a serious distrust of banks so his solution was to bury his jar of gold coins in his garden. When he suddenly died it was fortunate that his widow knew where the jar was buried as it would have taken a […]
Heppenstalls were blessed with fine company and good weather for our celebration of Arthur Scaife joining the teams. We would like to thank all our guests for joining us on 23rd June 2017 in our gardens, and helping to make Arthur welcome to us.
Heppenstalls Solicitors are delighted to welcome Arthur Scaife back to New Milton where he joins the Residential Conveyancing department. Heppenstalls have grown over recent months and having Arthur as part of our team is a very exciting development. Arthur is a very experienced Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives and is highly respected in the Forest […]
