Howells Solicitors has recruited more conveyancing experts and support staff to its property team as it reports continued activity in the housing market.

Experienced Chartered Legal Executive Sharon Thomas and solicitor Elise Stark have joined Howells Solicitors’ growing ranks as house sale completions continue to rise. The firm has also offered four training contracts to existing staff members who will be assisting in the conveyancing teams and Howells have also built strong relationships with the University of South Wales and recruited five graduates who recently completed the University’s Legal Practice Course.

After a couple of years of stagnation, the South Wales market is starting to move. Mark Hobbs, managing partner at Howells said, “At the beginning of 2013 the housing market remained a little fragile but there can be little doubt that by the end of the year it turned out to be a lot better than many in our sector expected.”

“It’s already been a brisk start to the year and the signs are all positive that this will continue in 2014. The Welsh property market won’t grow as quickly as it has in the London and the South East but it is moving again which is good news.” More...

Howells Solicitors has completed the sale of the first property in Wales to be purchased using the recently launched Government backed Help to Buy scheme.
 
The conveyancing department in the Swansea office of the award-winning law firm were instructed by Sian Jones on the purchase of a two bedroom apartment on the Persimmon Coed Darcy development near Neath.
 
Due to this being the first Help to Buy purchase in Wales, Philip Howell, founder partner of the law firm personally managed the case and worked with the Help to Buy co-ordinators throughout the process. It took just 20 working days from instruction to completion and all parties liaised together to ensure the quick and seamless transaction.

Commenting on the case, Philip Howell said, “It was a learning process for all parties involved. A couple of minor glitches were quickly resolved resulting in the swift 20 day completion. We have completed another Help to Buy case since and have others at various stages of the conveyancing process across our network of South Wales offices.” More...

A recent article on WalesOnline has claimed that stressed-out people are turning Wales into a nation "dependant on anti-depressants”, with prescriptions of some drugs rocketing by more than 100% in just the last six years.

And with the majority of a person's waking day being either spent in work, travelling to work or thinking of work, it is fair to say that a main source of stress and anxiety can be from within the workplace.

Stress and depression are always difficult to handle within the workplace as they cannot usually be detected as easily as other symptoms. As a result, they along with mental health issues are being labelled as the "silent epidemic".

Recognising stress as a disability

Employers need to be especially cautious when dealing with the issues particularly due to the potential of such conditions being classed as a disability. The definition of a disability under the Equality Act 2010 is "a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out day-to-day activities." More...

The outcome of UNISON's Judicial Review was handed down this morning, confirming that Employment Tribunal fees are here to stay.

The fees that were implemented from 29th July 2013 following the Government's intention to "swing the pendulum back in the employer's favour" has attracted enormous criticism, particularly from Trade Unions.

The fees introduced means that if anyone pursuing a claim such as unfair discrimination or discrimination must now have to pay a fee of £250 to lodge the complaint and a further £950 if the matter proceeds to hearing.

However, there is a remission scheme in place which allows such fees to be waived in the event of the individual having little income and capital In reality, these thresholds for such remission are difficult to achieve.More...

Following the recent recommendations to merge the 22 councils in Wales to 10, coupled with the continuing financial difficulties of those local authorities, the future of those employed within councils across Wales has never been so uncertain.

The private sector also doesn’t seem to be going unscathed as both Lloyds TSB and Barclays have this month announced nationwide job cuts.

Although such plans are likely to result in compulsory redundancies, employers must comply with a number of duties before they can fairly make employees redundant. Such duties include undertaking a fair consultation process, along with trying to find suitable alternative employment for those employees at risk of redundancy.

Given the amount of hurdles an employer has to jump over in a redundancy process, employers sometimes offer those potentially at risk of losing their job the opportunity to opt for voluntary redundancy.

If an employee chooses voluntary redundancy, the benefits are usually better than if the process is done compulsorily. This makes a voluntary redundancy package more appealing, especially if the employee's position is already at risk anyway. More...