No. With the inheritance tax threshold frozen at £325,000 since 2009 and property values across Cheshire and South Manchester continuing to rise, many ordinary families now find themselves within scope of inheritance tax.
If you own a property and have savings or a pension, it’s worth getting a professional assessment. More families are being caught than ever before, and early planning gives you the most options.
There are several pay-and-display spaces on Market Street and the nearest car park, Stamford Quarter, is a short walk away.
The majority of our clients are in Cheshire and South Manchester, including areas such as Warrington, Sandbach, Partington, Heald Green and Wythenshawe. We’re happy to help those further afield too, just get in touch.
No Win, No Fee means you don’t pay our legal fees unless your claim succeeds. It’s formally called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). If your claim is unsuccessful, you owe us nothing. If you win, we take a success fee from your compensation, which is capped by law at 25% of your damages.
We agree the exact percentage with you before we start. We also arrange insurance to protect you from the other side’s costs if the claim doesn’t succeed.
If someone dies without a Will, their estate is distributed according to the intestacy rules. These rules set out a strict order of entitlement. A surviving spouse does not automatically inherit everything, the division depends on the value of the estate and whether there are children or other relatives. Unmarried partners have no automatic right to inherit under intestacy, regardless of how long the relationship lasted. If there are no surviving relatives, the estate passes to the Crown.
There are several options:
What’s right depends on your circumstances, including your respective financial needs and any children’s welfare. We can advise you on the options available.
Deprivation of assets is when someone deliberately reduces their wealth to avoid paying care home fees. This could include giving away money, transferring property, or spending extravagantly.
If the local authority believes you’ve deprived yourself of assets to reduce your care contribution, they can assess you as if you still owned them. The rules are complex and the consequences serious. We can advise on what you can and cannot do with your money and property before care becomes necessary.
A Grant of Probate is issued when the person who died left a valid Will. It confirms the executors’ authority to deal with the estate. Letters of Administration are issued when there is no Will (or no valid Will). They serve the same purpose but are granted to an administrator, usually the next of kin, rather than a named executor. The application process is similar for both.
A Will only takes effect after you die. It says who inherits your property and possessions.
An LPA takes effect while you’re still alive. It allows someone you trust to manage your affairs if you become unable to do so yourself. They serve different purposes and ideally you should have both.
An attorney is someone you appoint yourself through a Lasting Power of Attorney while you still have mental capacity. A deputy is someone appointed by the Court of Protection after you’ve lost capacity.
The key difference is timing and control. With an LPA, you choose who acts for you and when. With a deputyship, the court decides, and the deputy is subject to ongoing supervision by the Office of the Public Guardian. Deputyships are also more expensive to set up and maintain.
With a freehold, you’re the outright owner. That means the building and the ground it sits on are yours indefinitely. With a leasehold, you have the right to occupy the property for however many years remain on the lease, but someone else (the freeholder) owns the land. That’s why leaseholders pay ground rent.
Most houses in Altrincham are freehold; most flats are leasehold. We’ll explain exactly what you’re buying and flag anything in the lease that could cause problems.
We conduct local authority searches with Trafford Council (or the relevant authority for your property), environmental searches covering flood risk and contaminated land, and drainage and water searches with United Utilities.
Depending on the property’s location, we may recommend additional searches. For example, coal mining searches in parts of Cheshire, or HS2 route searches for properties near the planned line.
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