Latest Newsletter
At Nick Hutchinson & Co we want to offer the best possible service to our clients. Recently we have been asked by several clients to keep them up to date with changes in the law that might affect them. We hope this newsletter is of interest to you, if you would like to discuss any of the issues in it please contact us.
Home Information Packs (HIPs)
If you have a property that you want to sell you must now obtain a HIP when you place it on the market. From the 14th of December 2007 almost all properties for sale will require a HIP. A HIP is a pack of documents that provides a prospective purchaser with basic information about the property. There is nothing new about most of the documents that make up a HIP, solicitors have been obtaining most of them as a matter of routine for years. What is new is the Energy Performance Certificate, which is produced by an Energy Assessor who visits your property to prepare the report.
There are a large number of HIP providers, including many estate agents. Some HIP providers will be preparing the HIPs themselves but many will be sub-contracting them to another company. Although they have not been around very long, we have already discovered that there is a particular problem with HIPs for leasehold properties because most HIP providers are unable to deal with the extra documentation these HIPs require. This means that in addition to paying for the basic HIP the seller client is also paying their solicitor to deal with the extra paperwork. Nick Hutchinson & Co is a HIP provider and we would be delighted to quote for preparing your HIP, especially where leasehold property is concerned; we believe we can offer a very competitive service and that our fully independent HIPs will give any seller an edge in a cooling housing market. For further information please call Jane Stephens or Jamie Cook on 01242 258228 or email
Inheritance Tax
In October 2007 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, without any warning, radically changed the inheritance tax bands with immediate effect. In general, this is good news for married or civil partnered couples, as the nil rate band (that was £300,000) has been increased to up to £600,000 for the survivor.This means that many more couples will now avoid paying any inheritance tax on their entire estates than before without the complication of creating a nil rate band trust. For some people even if their estate is worth between £300,000 and £600,000 it may still be appropriate to have will trusts, for instance to ring-fence property for children. If you have already made a will containing a nil rate band trust and your joint estate is less than £600,000 we suggest that you review your will as soon as possible. If you are concerned that this change in the law might effect your existing will or you wish to discuss your will requirements in general please contact Vanessa Hammond on 01242 261515 or email
Enduring Powers of Attorney and Lasting Powers of Attorney
On the 1st of October 2007 the Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) was replaced by the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). The idea of both systems is to appoint one or more people to deal with your financial affairs if you are no longer capable or no longer wish to deal with them yourself. Most of our clients executing an EPA or LPA consider it to be a type of insurance, so that if they are ever in a position where they need help the mechanism is already in place. Although it is no longer possible to make an Enduring Power of Attorney, if you already have a fully executed Enduring Power of Attorney, don't panic! As long as it was fully signed before the 1st of October 2007 it is still valid.
There are many differences between the two systems but the main one is that an LPA must be registered at court before it can be used, whereas an Enduring Power of Attorney only had to be registered if the donor became mentally incapable. This does not mean the LPA necessarily has to be registered at the time it is made. An LPA must be made while the donor is mentally capable, but it can be registered at any time after that irrespective of the mental capacity of the donor. We have always encouraged our clients to seriously consider making an Enduring Power of Attorney and our advice will not change with the new system. If you are considering making an LPA as "insurance" but do not intend to use it for a while, we suggest that you execute the LPA and we then keep it in our safe with your will until such time as you want to use it - at that stage it can be registered. If you think you might want an LPA please contact Vanessa Hammond on 01242 258227 who will be happy to discuss your requirements with you, or email
Employment Law
Employment Law is changing all the time, and whether you are an employee or an employer knowing employment rights is becoming more important, especially where there is a possibility that employment might be terminated. If an employee has been continuously employed for more than one year, the employer must adopt the prescribed steps for terminating that employment or risk the termination being automatically unfair. There are also circumstances where an employee dismissed within the first 12 months can be unfair. For more information contact Vanessa Hammond on 01242 258227 or email