2018 has been a great year for Boyd Rice Solicitors.
Thank you to all of our clients for your instructions over the past 12 months.
Our office will close from midday on Monday 24th December 2018 and will re-open on 2nd January 2019.
If you require urgent advice please email urgent@boydricesolicitors.com and one of the team will get back to you ASAP.
Best wishes for the festive season from all our Staff. See you in the New Year!
As part of our continued commitment to our existing clients and in line with considerable growth in our road traffic accident department, Boyd Rice Solicitors will be the first law firm in Northern Ireland to offer a 24 hour, 7 days a week accident helpline.
This ensures that any of our clients, old or new, can benefit from free legal advice at the scene of an accident.
Our accident helpline number is;
Please save this on your phone for future reference.
Not only will we be in a position to provide you with initial advice but we can also;
– Arrange for your vehicle to be repaired;
– Arrange for you to receive a replacement vehicle;
– Liaise with Police;
– Arrange for medical treatment including physiotherapy and rehabilitation;
– Secure compensation for your injuries;
– Claim for any depreciation to your vehicle;
– Recover your insurance excess;
– Recover your loss of earnings.
For further information please consult our website;
https://www.boydricesolicitors.com/personal-injury/road-traffic-accidents/
or email the team;
We are continuing to grow our debt recovery service. Businesses are increasingly entrusting Boyd Rice Solicitors to recover their debts. If you have a debt, that has been outstanding for up to six years, we will take all of the necessary and appropriate steps to recover it. Our firm is known for its extensive litigation experience.
There are a number of reasons why it pays to instruct a solicitor to recover debts on your behalf. Firstly, correspondence from a solicitor is much more likely to be taken seriously. The debtor will know you are contemplating litigation so they cannot ignore the demands any longer. Secondly, chasing debts is a time consuming process. By outsourcing this task to us you can focus on attracting new clients and issuing new bills. You can trust us to recover your outstanding debt. Thirdly, we can provide you with the advice that ultimate saves you money. We will know when you should issue a bankruptcy petition or when you should issue county court proceedings. If you were to make a mistake in selecting the appropriate forum you could waste further time and money.
To discuss our rates and how we can help your business contact us at 02891 817715 or email info@boydricesolicitors.com.
We are receiving an increasing number of new instructions since the closure of the factory earlier this year from clients who wish to explore a claim for compensation relating to loss of hearing or tinnitus resulting from their employment with Michelin.
As a result, we are running a series of law clinics in Ballymena North Business Centre. The first clinic is on Friday 23rd November 2018 beginning at 2pm and ending at 5pm.
Neil McGranaghan will be in attendance to meet new clients and discuss potential cases. Please bring photographic id to the appointment together with all other relevant information in respect of your claim.
To confirm your attendance please telephone our office on 02891 817715 or email claims@boydricesolicitors.com
For further information please check out our website;
https://www.boydricesolicitors.com/personal-injury/industrial-hearing-loss/
or our Facebook page;
https://www.facebook.com/Boyd-Rice-Solicitors-134584963298817/
If you cannot make the clinic on Friday 23rd November due to work commitments don’t worry, we will be back at Ballymena North Business Centre on Thursday 29th November 2018 between 6pm and 8pm.
When you decide to sell your property and you put your to-do list together it might look something like this;
1. Speak to an estate agent and get a rough valuation;
2. Check with your mortgage company as to how much is left to repay;
3. Decide whether you’re going to rent or buy post-sale;
4. Find a deep cleaning company to make the property look presentable to prospective buyers;
5. Find a gardener to tidy the outside;
6. Consider what items in the house you might throw away.
One thing that might be far from the forefront of your mind is what to do about all the work you have had done to the property. Surely if the work was done a few years ago and there’s been no problems then that’s the end of the matter? Possibly not if you didn’t follow the Building Control Regulations.
The Building Control Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 are legal requirements which lay down levels of performance for the construction of buildings and installation of some services. The rationale is that they help to protect the health and safety of people in or around buildings by raising standards.
Some works are covered by the Regulations and some works are exempt. Works covered by the Regulations include; replacement of a boiler; installation of a new central heating system; installation of cavity wall or roof space installation; installation of a wood fired burner. On the other hand replacing your whole kitchen or bathroom is exempt. To find out whether the work you have carried out is covered see here.
If you were to do everything by the book (or should we say – by the Regulations) you would give your local council’s Building Control department notice, in advance, that you are going to carry out works covered by the Regulations and submit your plans. Their surveyor could then come out to inspect the work at various stages, depending on what is being done, and at the end they would inspect and give a Completion Certificate. If you do happen to have one you do not need to worry about reading the rest of this article! Just make sure you keep this safe and give it to your solicitor whenever you come to sell your property.
So what if you haven’t got a Completion Certificate, how do you get around this? It depends on when the work was carried out. If it was completed more than ten years ago then you can relax and put the feet up (that time limit is reduced to five years for the installation or conversion of a central heating system). If the unauthorised work was carried out within that time then a solicitor for a prospective purchaser can insist on the production of a Regularisation Certificate. This is a retrospective sign off of the works carried out. It will cost a little more than if you had applied at the outset but it will confirm for the purchaser’s satisfaction that the works have been carried out to an appropriate standard. If the prospective purchaser is buying with the assistance of a mortgage company, the lender is very unlikely to let the sale go through with the production of such a certificate.
Sometimes these issues don’t arise until a few weeks into the conveyancing process when the parties realise there are unauthorised works which need to be cleared. This means the vendor has to make the relevant application to the local council, the local council has to send out a surveyor and the surveyor has to draft up a certificate. This can cause unnecessary delay and, in some circumstances, cause an impatient buyer to go elsewhere.
The lesson then is when you decide to sell your property, and you’re putting together your to-do list, have a think about all of the work you’ve had done to the property. Is there a valid Completion Certificate? If not, then make your application to your local council as you won’t be able to sell your property without getting retrospective approval.
If you would like advice in relation to any issue regarding the Building Control Regulations, or the sale of a property, please give us a call on 02891 817715 or contact our property team by email at property@boydricesolicitors.com.
Boyd Rice Solicitors have successfully recovered compensation on behalf of clients who have sustained damage to their hearing as a result of their employer failing to provide adequate protection. We have successfully recovered compensation against the following local employers;
We offer a free initial consultation and can facilitate meetings outside of normal working hours. Please give us a call on 02891 817715 or Belfast on 02890387060 or email claims@boydricesolicitors.com;
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 claims@boydricesolicitors.com
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.
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.
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 property@boydricesolicitors.com.
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 claims@boydricesolicitors.com 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.
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;
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 claims@boydricesolicitors.com 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.
Addresses:
Newtownards Office
6 Mill Street, Newtownards
Northern Ireland. BT23 4LU
Belfast Office
Musgrave House, 10 Stockmans Lane, Belfast,
BT9 7JA (By Appointment)
Bangor Office
114 Abbey Street
Bangor BT20 4JB
Contact Us:
Call us on: 02891 817715
Fax: 02891 812374
Email: info@boydricesolicitors.com
Opening Times:
Monday-Friday: 9am to 5pm
