Howells Solicitors are delighted to announce that we have completed 294 of the 1000 purchases of new homes in Wales using the Help-to-Buy-Wales scheme.

First Anniversary of Help-to-Buy-Wales

On the first anniversary of the Help-to-Buy-Wales scheme, the initiative celebrates the completion of the purchase of the 1,000th home bought through this scheme. The law firm responsible for completing the first sale using this scheme in February 2013 has been appointed by a further 293 clients to represent them in the sales process.

A Year of Success for Howells

This achievement is the culmination of a record and awarding winning year for the conveyancing department of the law firm. On average they have completed 800 residential purchases each month and in September were named as the Best Regional Conveyancing Firm of 2014 for the Wales and West Midlands region at the prestigious Law Firm Services Awards.

Mark Hobbs, managing partner of Howells Solicitors said, “We’re delighted to have been chosen to represent a record number of clients in 2014 and receive the award as recognition of the quality of work and high level of customer service provided by the conveyancing teams.”More...

As it's the start of a brand new year, we thought it would be a great time to look back on 2014 to see what’s changed. New laws have been brought in, legislation has changed and Scotland almost left the UK. Here’s a complete roundup of everything that’s happened this year:

How Many Changes?

A record breaking number of changes to legislation have been brought in this year – 335 to be precise. That’s 95 more than last year and over 200 more than was seen a decade ago in 2004.  Many of these changes will have very little effect on the general public, however nobody will be completely untouched by these new laws which include:

Employment Law Changes

There have been several major changes to employment law during 2014, these will have an impact on both employers and employees. Some of the ones that you should be most aware of are:

•    Transfer of Undertaking Protection of Employment – there was talk of abolishing it entirely, but instead the policy has simply been adapted. Although the provision will be the pretty much the same, liability information now has to be provided 28 days before transfer and there must be an economic, technical or organisation reason for change of workplace location. 

•    Financial penalties for breaching employment rights – employers who breach employment rights will now face financial penalties of between £100 and £5,000 issued by tribunals.More...