Hartley & Worstenholme founded in 1874 with roots based in Castleford is delighted to be sponsoring Castleford Tigers during 2019.  Pictured is Jonathan Sharp, Keith Wivell and Mandy Arkell.

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Hartley & Worstenholme Solicitors are now seeking a Conveyancing Legal Secretary to join their Residential Property Team. This is a great opportunity for a personable applicant who is seeking to join a reputable firm. The role is offered on a full time permanent basis. Part time will be considered.

The Role
The successful candidate will be proficient in the use of the Land Registry portal. Experience in case management systems would be highly advantageous. Working well under minimum supervision, your duties will include: file management; typing; drafting legal documents; submitting search applications.
The Candidate:
• excellent communication skills
• IT literate to include experience in the use of digital dictation
• excellent spelling and grammar
• accuracy and attention to detail
• the ability to work in a team
• experience producing legal documents
• working from solicitors’ written notes and audio files (dictation)
• filing and general administrative work
• handling confidential information
Please send CVs for the attention of Victoria Towell to vtowell@hartley-worstenholme.co.uk or at 10 Gillygate, Pontefract, WF8 1PQ”

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Jonathan Sharp, Managing Partner, and Mandy Arkell, Chartered Legal Executive Advocate, at the local law firm Hartley & Worstenholme, based in Pontefract and Castleford have recently gained specialist qualifications respectively as a Notary and Children Panel Member.

Jonathan, a commercial property solicitor, is now one of around 850 Notaries in England and Wales to be qualified. As a Notary, he is primarily concerned with the authentication and certification of signatures, authority and capacity relating to documents for use abroad.

Jonathan is delighted to be able to offer this service to clients stating that “It is a great achievement to qualify as a Notary, in the third and oldest branch of the legal profession, and I am looking forward to offering Notarial services to our clients.”

Following her qualification, Mandy is now a member of the Children Law Accreditation Scheme (the Children Panel) and the only scheme member based in Castleford. She regularly appears in Family Courts throughout Yorkshire in applications involving children as well as financial and domestic violence proceedings. Mandy represents and assists children, parents and other family members where a Local Authority Social Services Department has become involved with the family.

Mandy, who lives in Castleford and has worked for Hartley & Worstenholme since 1993 said “I am extremely proud to become a member of the Children Law Accreditation Scheme. This is something I have been working towards for many years. I am now able to represent children, parents and other family members and advise them where Social Services or the Local Authority is involved”.

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Jonathan Sharp, Managing Partner, and Mandy Arkell, Chartered Legal Executive Advocate, at the local law firm Hartley & Worstenholme, based in Pontefract and Castleford have recently gained specialist qualifications respectively as a Notary and Children Panel Member.

Jonathan, a commercial property solicitor, is now one of around 850 Notaries in England and Wales to be qualified. As a Notary, he is primarily concerned with the authentication and certification of signatures, authority and capacity relating to documents for use abroad.

Jonathan is delighted to be able to offer this service to clients stating that “It is a great achievement to qualify as a Notary, in the third and oldest branch of the legal profession, and I am looking forward to offering Notarial services to our clients.

Following her qualification, Mandy is now a member of the Children Law Accreditation Scheme (the Children Panel) and the only scheme member based in Castleford. She regularly appears in Family Courts throughout Yorkshire in applications involving children as well as financial and domestic violence proceedings. Mandy represents and assists children, parents and other family members where a Local Authority Social Services Department has become involved with the family.

Mandy, who lives in Castleford and has worked for Hartley & Worstenholme since 1993 said “I am extremely proud to become a member of the Children Law Accreditation Scheme. This is something I have been working towards for many years. I am now able to represent children, parents and other family members and advise them where Social Services or the Local Authority is involved”.

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The Castleford office of Hartley & Worstenholme are please to announce that they are participating in the Martin House Children’s Hospice “make a will month” in May 2016.

This gives you the opportunity to have a will written at the discounted price of £60 for a basic single will or £110 for basic mirror wills.

If you would like to take advantage of this offer please collect an entitlement voucher from our Castleford reception, or when arranging an appointment in May 2016 mention that you want to make a will under the Martin House make a will month scheme and we will have a voucher ready for you at your appointment.

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The New Regime

Chancellor George Osborne said that stamp duty will be cut for 98% of homebuyers in his Autumn Statement to the Commons.  These changes came into effect at midnight on the 3^rd December 2014.  

Before the Autumn Changes the amount of stamp duty payable jumped at certain price levels. This system has been replaced by a graduated scale which works in a similar way to income tax.  Under the old regime, if you were buying at £125,000 you would pay stamp duty at 0% but if you were buying at £125,001 you would have to pay stamp duty at 1% of the whole purchase price, being £1250!  Under the new regime you now pay 2% tax on the amount over £125000 mark (until the next tax bracket which comes in at £250,001).  So this means that if you buy a house for £130,000,  you will now pay stamp duty of £70 rather than £1300!

The new rates are : 

Residential properties

If you are currently in the process of buying a home here is a link to the stamp duty calculator.  www.hmrc.gov.uk/tools/sdlt/land-and-property.htm .  You will need to use an estimated date for completion and enter the purchase price of the property that you are hoping to buy.  

Swings and Roundabouts

People buying at the more expensive end of the market have seen a considerable rise in stamp duty and this appears to have had an effect on house prices over £2m.  Some experts have suggested that this will result in sellers of homes over this value having to reduce their prices by some 10%.  A “mansion tax” by stealth?

In our region the changes have already had a positive effect and will hopefully bring first time buyers to the middle market, where they have historically been unable to compete because of the difficulty in finding the large lump sum to cover a deposit and stamp duty.

We can help

Hopefully the changes to stamp duty will see increased activity in the housing market.  Here at Hartley & Worstenholme, we have experienced lawyers who are ready to look after both new and valued existing clients.  If you would like to discuss the legalities of buying a Property  or require an estimate of our costs, then please contact one of the conveyancing team.

Click here to contact either our Pontefract or Castleford office today.

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Over 85% of the land in England and Wales is registered at the Land Registry and the Land Registry has already registered 23 million titles.

If the property you own is not registered at the Land Registry we strongly recommend that you make a voluntary application to register it… why?

Reasons to Register

• It brings your ownership up to date, enables you to identify your holdings, and consolidates and stores relevant information in one place.

• It can identify problems which can be sorted out now. It’s not fair to leave it to your heirs who may not know what you know now, in any case, it’s cheaper to deal with such things sooner rather than later in the long run.

• It provides simpler access to the property details and plans in future. This makes it easier and faster (and so cheaper!) to deal with a sale or other dealing with the property.

• Your ownership is guaranteed by the Land Registry. The loss of unregistered deeds can make it difficult (sometimes impossible) to prove you own your property.

• It makes it harder for people to encroach on your property and successfully claim ownership of the land occupied.

• Buyers and lenders increasingly expect land to be registered before buying or lending.

• Land Registry is currently giving discount on voluntary registration applications. For example if your property is worth between £100,001 and £200,000 the normal fee of £190 is reduced to £140.

Is my property registered?

If we already hold your deeds we’ll be able to tell you.

If you’ve got your deeds you can make an appointment, bring them to see one of our conveyancing team and they’ll be pleased to let you know.

If you’ve access to the internet you may wish to use the Land Registry’s online checker at www.landregistry.gov.uk

How do I do it?

You can do it yourself! You could contact Land Registry and they are there to help.

However, you may find it simpler to let your solicitor (us!) do it for you. We’ll be pleased to do so and will estimate our costs for you at the outset.

For most ordinary domestic property our charge is currently £195 + vat and the applicable Land Registry fee.

If problems arise which would raise those costs we will tell you and seek your approval before proceeding.

Once registered we’ll give you the new title information document and the old deeds to keep.

For further information, please contact us by clicking here.

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The rules that apply if you die without a will changed dramatically on 1 October 2014.

If you have a will, you don’t need to worry.

If you don’t have a will, make an appointment as soon as possible!

Get in touch here to make an appointment.

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