Japanese Knotweed, an Invasive Species

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Japanese Knotweed was brought into the UK in Victorian times as an ornamental plant. What they didn’t know was that the plant has an invasive root system.

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The Survey, an essential part of your Property Purchase

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Purchasing a property is one of the largest investments that you will ever make and it is important that you have as much information about its condition.

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Small Conveyancing Firm of the Year 2018

Winners of the prestigious award for Small Conveyancing Firm of the Year 2018

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Gaddes Noble Property Lawyers are very proud to announce that they have won the prestigious award for Small Conveyancing Firm of the Year 2018.

The LFS Conveyancing Awards are the largest and most prestigious event in the conveyancing calendar.  At this national event, over 700 solicitors, licensed conveyancers and conveyancing professionals enjoyed an evening of entertainment, a three course gala dinner and a nervous wait with other finalists to see who would be crowned winners.

Small Conveyancing Firm of the Year 2018

The award that we have won was available to all Small Conveyancing Firms. It gave us the opportunity to enter for offering a first class service but without having the large marketing budgets of our larger rivals and to compete against each other on a level playing field.

The judging process was over five stages and comprised of:

  1. Completion of an application so that the judges could make an initial assessment.
  2. A mystery shopping exercise to obtain a conveyancing quote. This process was scored on both the quality of the phone call and the subsequent quote pack that they received.
  3. A compliance check undertaken by Legal Eye. They requested several documents and policies and a score was given to each firm.
  4. A telephone interview by one of the judges.
  5. Shopper Anonymous undertook a client survey based on a net promoter score.

Managing Director, Lee Gaddes, commented ‘to win this highly acclaimed award is an honour and a testimony to our fabulous conveyancing team.

We all enjoyed the evening with our fellow finalists in Birmingham and never expected to win. The award now takes pride of place in our reception area in our offices in Huddersfield and will be our benchmark for the years to come’.

Small Conveyancing Firm of the Year North win 2018

Gaddes Noble Shortlisted Small Conveyancer of the Year

Shortlisted for the prestigious award for Small Conveyancer of the Year 2018

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Gaddes Noble Property Lawyers are very proud to announce that they have been shortlisted for the prestigious award for Small Conveyancer of the Year 2018.

The LFS Conveyancing Awards are now in their seventh year and are the biggest and most prestigious event in the conveyancing calendar.

The award that we have entered was available all Small Conveyancing Firms. It gave us the opportunity to enter for offering a first class service but without having the large marketing budgets of our larger rivals and to compete against each other on a level playing field.

We have been part of a five-stage judging process, comprising of:

  1. Completion of an application so that the judges could make an initial assessment.
  2. A mystery shopping exercise to obtain a conveyancing quote. This process was scored on both the quality of the phone call and the subsequent quote pack that they received.
  3. A compliance check undertaken by Legal Eye. They requested several documents and policies and a score was given to each firm.
  4. A telephone interview by one of the judges
  5. Shopper Anonymous undertook a client survey based on a net promoter score

Managing Director, Lee Gaddes, commented ‘to be shortlisted for this highly acclaimed award is an honour and a testimony to our fabulous conveyancing team.  We are all now looking forward to attending the awards dinner later this year in Birmingham’.

Commercial property, stamp duty land tax

Commercial Property and Stamp Duty Land Tax

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Since the introduction of the controversial 3% Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on second residential properties we have seen a sharp increase in our investor clients purchasing commercial property and land.

The purchase of a second residential property generates SDLT of 3% on the purchase price.  This applies to any residential property over £40,000.00 so if you purchased at £100,000.00 you would pay £3,000.00 in SDLT.

Our clients are being creative in a variety of ways, for example purchasing:

  1. Open land with a view to developing and building on the land
  2. Commercial property, for example a shop, to then convert into residential apartments
  3. Derelict commercial property to demolish and use the land for residential development

These scenarios would not generate the additional SDLT on completion and would result in the investor/developer eventually owning more residential property.

HMRC give a definition of non-residential property which includes:

  • Commercial property, e.g. shops or offices
  • Agricultural land
  • Forests
  • Any other land or property which is not used as a residence
  • 6 or more residential properties bought in a single transaction

They also define a ‘mixed use’ property is one that has both residential and non-residential elements, e.g. a flat connected to a shop, doctor’s surgery or office.

Commercial Property Service

As part of our service to you, we complete all necessary Stamp Duty Land Tax forms and ensure that you pay the correct rate on your transaction.  This applies to commercial leases as well as the purchase of a commercial property.

For commercial leases, we act on behalf of Landlords and Tenants.

  • With a Landlord client we usually meet at the outset and discuss the Heads of Terms, we then draft the commercial lease and send this to the Tenants solicitor for approval.
  • With a Tenant client we ensure the Heads of Terms match the draft Lease provided and advise the client on the various clauses and legal terms. We’ll submit searches for a Tenant client where necessary and we also advise at the outset on the SDLT payable upon completion.

We have experience in acting for clients selling, buying and leasing shops, hotels, public houses and warehouses.

We can also advise on investment purchases with a return which can includes the purchase of a room in student accommodation, the purchase of a room in a care home and the purchase of a room in a hotel.

Please contact us for a free initial consultation for all your commercial property conveyancing legal requirements.