Moving home? Buying or selling an investment property? We know there’s a lot of financial aspects to consider. The questions we’re asked most weeks are ‘what is conveyancing?’ and ‘why do I need it?’ Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring property or a piece of land from the seller to the buyer. Here we explain the […]

This month, we are donating £1,985.65 to Crohn’s and Colitis UK and raising awareness of the charity throughout the office, as we have 3 sufferers in a team of 40 people. Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis are the two main forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, affecting more than 300,000 people in the UK. For more information visit the […]

Here we explain the process of clearing your name and re-establishing contact with your children. There is a common misconception that mothers are favoured as primary carers of children over fathers but, in fact, the Family Court presumes that both parents should be equally involved in their child’s life, as long as each parent does […]

As ORJ joins the Tesco bank conveyancing panel, here we explain the benefits to clients, builders, brokers, agents and IFA’s of using or recommending a firm that is on every bank panel. ORJ has one of the largest conveyancing departments in the region. We complete about £200m of house purchases and sales each year and […]

ORJ was delighted to be instructed to advise a major IT provider when it agreed to take on the day to day IT requirements of a formula 1 team. The deal involved the TUPE transfer of 8 specialist technical staff, as well as detailed contractual negotiations on  what functions would be taken on together with […]

New rules under the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD) apply with effect from 21st March 2016. The rules introduce the requirement to give customers a minimum 7 day period of reflection once a binding mortgage offer is issued. This reflection period allows each customer to decide whether they wish to accept the terms of their mortgage […]

The environmental search is a search carried out with an environmental agency (not the Environmental Agency) that gives details of the past uses of the land and the land in the vicinity of the property and whether such past uses are likely to have caused any potential contamination of the land on which the property […]

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations are intended to prohibit trading practices which are unfair to consumers. This includes “immoveable property” and the Regulations therefore cover property sales. When acting for the seller of a property, the solicitor must make the seller aware that both the seller and the solicitor have a duty not […]

If you are considering purchasing an additional property which is not going to be your main residence, it is important that you are aware of the new Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) rates which will come into force from 1st April 2016. The Government confirmed the changes to stamp duty land tax 2016 at the […]

In 2015, court issue fees in England and Wales were raised substantially; some by more than 600%. The highest issue fee is now £10,000, which is applicable to all cases valued at £200,000 or more.  Coupled with earlier changes eliminating the recoverability of Conditional Fee Agreement (“CFA”), success fees and After the Event (“ATE”) insurance […]