Do you work in industry or construction? Do you use vibrating hand-held tools at work for prolonged periods?

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Have you developed hand conditions such as Vibration White Finger, Hand/Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), Raynaud’s Phenomenon or Carpel Tunnel Syndrome?

Boyd Rice Solicitors have an experienced team of Solicitors who have recovered compensation for clients in actions against their current or former employers. We may be able to help even if the Company that you used to work for no longer exists. Working in construction or industry can place significant strain on your hands and unfortunately this can lead to conditions which will affect you on a daily basis for the rest of your life. Using any of the following tools for prolonged periods can be harmful to your arms or hands;

– Kango hammers
– Pneumatic jack hammers
– Drills
– Chain saws
– Grinders
– Sanders
– Bucking bars
– Hydraulic breakers

Using this type of equipment can also lead to hearing loss.

If you have developed a hand/arm condition as a result of your employment please give us a call to arrange a consultation. Our initial consultation is completely confidential, without obligation and free of charge. Please ring our Newtownards office on 02891 817715or Belfast on 02890387060 or email [email protected]

What issues to consider when Selling a Property serviced by a Septic Tank

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If you’re selling a property serviced by a septic tank you must have a consent to discharge in place

Do you have a septic tank? Do you have a consent to discharge in respect of the septic tank? If you are planning to sell your home and your answer to the first question is yes and your answer to the second is no or you are unsure then you need to find out quickly as it unlikely you will find someone to buy your property without a consent being in place.

A discharge consent is required if your home is not connected to the main public sewer. If you have an Emptying Agreement with NI Water in respect of the septic tank, contrary to some misconceptions, you will still require a consent to discharge. A consent to discharge waste from a single domestic dwelling is granted by the Department of Agricultural, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) following an application made using the WO1 form. Recommendations may be made by the local council’s Environment Health (Rivers) Officer.

How to find out if you have a consent to discharge

If you are unsure whether there is a consent to discharge in place first search the Domestic Consents Public Register. All domestic consents and maps for consents granted from 1992 to present are available to download from DAERA’s website. Even if you cannot find your consent on their online site, contact them directly as historically sometimes the consents were applied for and granted with an address that does not reflect the current postal address.

If you receive confirmation that the use of your septic tank is not covered by a consent then the consequences are potentially very serious. If you discharge any trade or sewage effluent without consent, or breach any condition of a discharge consent, you can get be fined up to £20,000 or be imprisoned for up to 3 months. Therefore you will want to make the application as soon as possible.

How to apply for a consent to discharge

The DAERA website indicates that it can take up to four months for the application to be processed. If you already have a prospective buyer of the property this delay could be enough to cause the proposed sale to fall through. The good news is we can provide you with access to wastewater treatment solutions professionals who can look after the whole application process, from start to finish. Not only will this remove the stress of dealing with it yourself it, will really speed up the process from taking a few months to potentially taking a few weeks. This will allow you to proceed with the sale of your property.

Once the sale of the property has gone through the new owner submits a WO4 form to have the consent reissued in his or her name.

If you would like advice in relation to any issue regarding consents to discharge, or the sale of a property, please give us a call on 02891 817715 or contact our property team by email at [email protected].

Personal Injury Specialist Solicitors

Non-fault accidents- your own insurance should not be affected

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Boyd Rice Solicitors has an experienced team of road traffic accident Solicitors who will always strive to ensure that you;

– Are not out of pocket following your accident;
– Receive a replacement vehicle;
– Obtain compensation for your injuries;
– Have the benefit of medical treatment;
– Recover any loss of earnings.

We have noticed an increasing number of clients have approached us on the basis that they feel a sense of injustice that have been asked to pay their insurance excess or, that their premium has increased, following an accident that is not their fault.

This can be avoided by contacting us immediately after your accident has occurred on 02891 817715. If you are involved in an accident over the weekend we can still help, simply email [email protected] providing a contact telephone number and we will come back to you right away.

When you contact us first we will provide you with immediate advice in respect of what to do next. We can ensure that your insurance is not affected at all by your accident and arrange for your vehicle to be assessed and subsequently repaired.

Early advice is key.

Passenger on a bus that crashed? Follow this guide

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Many of us use public transport travel to work, access local supermarkets or visit relatives. Our injury claims’ team have successfully recovered compensation for clients who have sustained injuries whilst travelling as passengers on public transport.

If you have been injured following an accident on a bus we would suggest that you take the following steps;

  1. Retain a copy of the bus ticket. If you used a smart pass keep it and record its unique identification number;
  2. Ask for the name of the bus driver, take note of the bus route and where you were sitting on the bus;
  3. Exchange contact details with other passengers;
  4. If Police attend the scene take a note of the Police incident number;
  5. Take photographs if possible of the bus and any other vehicles involved. Take note of the other vehicle’s registration number;
  6. Seek medical attention for your injuries;
  7. Contact Boyd Rice Solicitors.

We have just provided advice to the family of one of the passengers on the bus that was involved in an accident with a traffic on the Belfast Road, Newtownards at Bradshaws Brae on 16th July 2018. If you were also travelling on this bus and have sustained injuries please give us a call.We wish all involved the very best with their recovery.

Please contact one of the injury claims team on 02891 817715, or by email  [email protected] and let us explain how we can help you.

We offer a free initial consultation where we will confidentially discuss the circumstances of your accident and will assess how we can assist you in the best way possible. We use leading experts to investigate accidents and our team of medical practitioners are extremely experienced.

 

purchasing a house through co-ownership conveyancing law

How to get a deposit for a first home

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Some hints and tips to inspire first time buyers

Ask any aspiring first time buyer what the biggest hurdle to buying their starter home is and they will tell you it is saving up for the deposit. The average deposit need for a first-time buyer house in Northern Ireland is an eye-watering £30,435. With property prices on the increase it may seem like the dream of owning your first home is moving ever increasingly out of reach. Helpfully we have decided to provide you with some tips that may help make that dream a reality.

Move back in with the parents

Housing rents are far in excess of monthly mortgage repayments right now. Every pound you give to your landlord is a pound less saved towards your deposit. It makes perfect sense then to move back home and put what you would have spent on rent into the bank at the end of each month. The average rent here is £629 per month. Over the course of a year that is a not inconsiderable sum of £7,548. In addition you may be able to save on food, utilities, etc.

The Bank of Mum and Dad

Yes this is only available to the privileged and is unfair on those more disadvantaged but the majority of first time buyers are getting gifts to help with the deposit. Your lender will require your parents to sign a gift waiver, often with independent legal advice. One thing to be wary about, if your parents die within seven years of making the gift to you its value may still be counted towards the inheritance tax liability.

Move somewhere else

If you don’t mind a bit of a commute to work you will find that the property values vary wildly in Northern Ireland, as they say, “location, location, location”. Moving from Belfast into the commuter belt or from one county to another can get you similar properties at a fraction of the cost. This will help knock a big chunk off of your deposit.

Get a Help to Buy ISA

Don’t just save, get the government’s help. If you open up one of these ISAs (available at almost all of the high street banks) the government will boost your savings by 25%. The maximum bonus you can get is £3,000 per saver. So if you and your partner are purchasing together you could conceivable get a bonus of £6,000 between you. There is a lot of small print so make sure you take time to apprise yourself of the terms before getting involved.

Buy with Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing

This is a not for profit organisation with the sole purpose of making housing more affordable. In very broad terms you buy between 50% and 90% of the home you want and they buy the remaining share. You pay rent on the share that you do not own. You can then buy more shares in your property as the years go by. What this does is vastly decrease the size of the deposit you need (by up to 50%) so it is not to be sniffed at.

If you would like advice in relation to any issue regarding the purchase of a first home please give us a call on 02891 817715 or contact our property team by email at [email protected].

Personal Injury Specialist Solicitors

Office closed 11th to 13th July inclusive

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Our offices will be closed between 11th and 13th July inclusive but you can still reach us if required! If you have been in an accident and require immediate advice please email [email protected] and we will come back to you within one hour.

Free Wills Month

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Call us during the month of June to avail of a free Will

Drafting up a will is something most of us know we should do but something we usually put off for another day. Now is the perfect time however to finally get round to it as Boyd Rice Solicitors are offering free Will writing services throughout the month of June.

You neither have to be an existing client of ours nor do you have to use any of our other services to take up this offer. All that we ask is that you make a small donation to our Charity of the Year, Cancer Focus NI.

If you want us to help you draft a will please give us a call on 02891 817715, or contact our estates team by email at [email protected].

New Privacy Policy

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Boyd Rice Solicitors are entrusted by you, our clients, to hold sensitive information on your behalf. We use this information, at your instruction, in order to obtain the best possible results for you.

This bestows upon us a great responsibility as custodians of this information. We, in conjunction, with our partners have processes and systems in place to keep this information secure.

As a result of the incoming General Date Protection Regulation we have updated our privacy policy. Please take time to read through it. If you have any queries do not hesitate to call us on 02891 817715.

Re-mortgage your house

Is Equity Release Right for You?

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A guide to the increasingly popular equity release mortgages and their pros and cons

Equity release allows you to borrow against you the value in your home whilst you continue to live in it. This is aimed at those aged 55+. Equity release has been soaring in popularity recently. Figures for the first three months of 2018 show that equity release lending has more than doubled over the past two years, from £394 million in the first quarter of 2016 to £870 million this quarter. There are a number of reasons for this; the aging population, shortfalls in private pension plans, retirees still facing indebtedness, the increasing cost of care and so on.

What plans are there?

There are really two main categories of equity release plans. The first are lifetime mortgages. Here you take a loan out against the property whilst you retain ownership of the property. You can take the loan out in a lump sum, or in staged payments. You can borrow up to 60% of the value of your property.

You don’t have to make any repayments whilst you are alive although some plans give you this option. The interest rolls up and is paid off on the sale of the property. If the property increases in value you will benefit from the increase in value. However the interest can build up surprisingly quickly. Try and draw down the loan in stages to minimise the interest that will accrue.

Most plans will have a no negative equity guarantee. This means that when your property is inevitably sold, and the associated costs to lawyers and agents paid, if there is not enough money left to repay the outstanding balance of the loan then your estate will not be liable to pay any more.

A home reversion plan works a little differently. This allows you to sell all or some of your home. In return you get a lump sum or regular payments. You can get up to 60% of the market value of your property. The size of the percentage you can take will depend on your age. The older you are the greater share you can sell.

Like the lifetime mortgage plan you have the right to remain in the property for the rest of your life. It will also have a no negative equity guarantee.

What are the downsides?

A key aspect to remember is that any form of equity release will reduce the size of your estate. This means you will be leaving less behind for your friends and family. Equity Release is something that you should discuss together.

If you opt for a home reversion plan it will not realise anything close to what you would get for your property on the open market.

It can also affect your entitlement to means tested benefits such as pension credit.

The arrangement fees can be expensive (£1,500 to £3,000) and so can the repayment charges.

You need to speak to an independent financial adviser, that you trust, if you are considering equity release. Then your next port of call should be us. Phone 02891 817715 or contact our property team by email at [email protected].

neurology review

Neurology Patient Review

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Disturbing information has recently come to light regarding the treatment and care of a significant number of neurology patients here in Northern Ireland.

Approximately 2,500 patients have received letters from the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust notifying them that their cases are subject to an urgent review.

There is no doubt that this will be very distressing for those involved and many heart-breaking stories have been reported in the media.

If you are one of the people affected by this review and you have suffered as a result of the misdiagnosis or mistreatment of your condition then you may be entitled to seek compensation.

For over 30 years Boyd Rice Solicitors have been representing people who suffered injuries resulting from medical negligence. We will ensure your circumstances are thoroughly investigated and will strive to get you the compensation that you deserve.

If you have been the victim of medical malpractice please contact one of the injury claims team on 02891 817715, by email [email protected] or complete our Online Enquiry and let us explain how we can help you.