Blog

  • House Price Index Reveals Annual Price Rise

    According to March’s edition of the UK House Price Index UK, house prices rose by an average of 4.1% on an annual basis. Residential sales in Scotland rose by 2.0% to 6239 compared to January in the previous year , however this was 25.4% lower than sales during December 2016. Again in Scotland the average price ...

  • Update on Help to Buy (Scotland) Scheme

    The Scottish Government has recently announced that the price cap on properties eligible for the Help to Buy scheme will remain at £200,000 in 2018/19. The scheme helps eligible householders buy a new build home from a participating builder by contributing up to a maximum 15% equity stake in the property. The aim behind the ...

  • The Bank of Mum and Dad

    The Bank of Mum and Dad apparently is now Britain’s ninth biggest “mortgage lender” putting it on a par with the Yorkshire Building Society. Parents are predicted to lend more than £6.5bn this year to help their children get on the property ladder.  This is a 30% increase on the £5bn loaned in 2016 according ...

  • Government Urged To Remove VAT On Charitable Wills

    Charity Consortium, Remember a Charity, has urged the UK Government to exempt VAT from the cost of writing a Will containing a charitable bequest. The consortium predicts a VAT exemption on charitable wills would double the number of people leaving a gift to charity, generating a further £800m for the voluntary sector. Rob Cope, Remember a Charity ...

  • Keep Your Options Open

    Ross Leatham, Partner in our Commercial Property Department explains what an option agreement is and why the parties involved in a land purchase transaction may want one: An option agreement is an agreement between a landowner and a potential developer of the landowner’s property. Mostly the prospective purchaser will pay an agreed price to the landowner ...

  • A Legal Update for Landlords

    The private rental sector will face significant changes over the next year with the introduction of the new ‘Private Residential Tenancy’ and the ‘Letting Agent’ Regulations but there are a number of other recent legal developments that landlords should be aware of. Creation of the First-tier Tribunal Housing and Property Chamber The Housing and Property Chamber which ...

  • Gender Pay Gap

    When you “make a bold statement”, you express an opinion in a brave way or it might be “bold” because the opinion is uncommon or controversial. In the wake of International Women’s Day I am going to be bold. There exists a gender pay gap (GPG) which the World Economic Forum predicts will not be closed until 2186. ...

  • New Residence Nil Rate Band

    From April 2017 a new IHT- free allowance has being  introduced. It is to be known as the Residence Nil Rate Band (RNRB) and will apply if you leave your residence to your “direct descendants”. The objective of the policy according to the Government is to “reduce the burden of IHT for most families by making ...

  • Families Matter

    The Scottish Family Business Association exists to support, nurture and help develop the full potential of all our Scottish family businesses. Research, expertise and experience from across the globe show that by adopting specific best practices family businesses can overcome inherent challenges and flourish both as businesses and as families. Although it is not always recognised ...

  • A new Bill to tackle psychological domestic abuse has been published

    The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill aims to strengthen the law against people who psychologically abuse their partners using coercive and controlling behaviour. For the first time, the Bill will create a statutory offence of domestic abuse by recognising the damage which non- physical abuse can cause. Such behaviour could include subordination, humiliation, isolating a partner from ...

Comments are closed.