PROPERTY LAW

Your house is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it – it’s as simple as that. Since it has taken 18 months for you to get this far it would suggest that your estate agents were over-ambitious, but you certainly don’t have to accept the surveyor’s valuation. It’s a very common tactic for buyers to use their surveyor’s report to negotiate a further reduction in the price. But ultimately the sale and the question of who I RENT out a house divided into furnished flats. The first tenant left before the lease was up refusing to pay the balance, and the second stayed a month over the lease but was three months in arrears when he left. Can I confiscate property if future tenants fall into arrears? Landlords who attempt to resolve problems with tenants without a working knowledge of the law can land themselves in very hot water, as seizing property to force payment of arrears in residential properties is illegal. Section 71 of the Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 abolished the previous common law right to distrain for arrears of rent. If your tenant is in arrears, you should consult a solicitor to discuss how best to proceed. We’ve been told that the need for probate can be avoided when one of us dies by only having a certain amount of money in your bank or building society. Each bank sets its own limit, and providing you keep it under that sum they pay out to the surviving partner. So if your savings are split between different banks there’s no need for probate. Most of our savings are not in joint names. Banks will often pay out sums between £5,000 and £15,000 without requiring production of a Grant of Probate, so there is some truth in what you say. However it seems an elaborate scheme to avoid probate fees which are currently only £155 when application is made via a solicitor (otherwise £215) and there are currently proposals to scrap probate fees altogether for estates valued at under £50,000. My neighbour put up a boundary wall with all the damaged bricks facing my property rather than his. I know this is not the correct procedure, but to cover it up my husband decided to plant some climbing roses. Now the neighbour is objecting to him fastening a trellis to the wall. Can he do this? Assuming the wall straddles the boundary between your property and your neighbour’s property, this is what’s known as a ‘party wall’ under the Party Wall Act »»Call SAS Daniels LLP Solicitors on 0161 475 7676 or 01625 442 100. »»Visit www.sasdaniels. co.uk »»If you have any legal questions, write to Weekly Law and You, MEN Media, Mitchell Henry House, Hollinwood Avenue, Chadderton OL9 8EF, or email mail@lawQs.co.uk