Media Centre

2026

• Council Search Delays: Why Your House Sale Is Stuck
  Posted on July 21, 2026
  If your house sale has stalled and nobody seems able to tell you why, there's a good chance the answer is sitting in a council office in-tray. New research from House Buyer Bureau has found that local authority search delays in some parts of England have stretched to 92 working days — nearly four calendar months for a single piece of paperwork that used to take a couple of weeks. For anyone mid-transaction, or about to start one, this is worth understanding before it derails your move.
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• Digital Assets and Probate: What Executors Can't Access
  Posted on July 21, 2026
  "Most people assume that once probate is granted, executors can access everything the person owned. That simply isn't true with digital assets." That warning, from Stuart Downey, a partner at TWM Solicitors, cuts to the heart of a problem increasingly catching families off guard: a grant of probate gives you the legal authority to deal with someone's estate, but it doesn't hand you the password. If you're an executor, or you're thinking about who'll act as yours, digital assets are one of the areas most likely to catch you out.
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• Home Buying Reform Roadmap: What It Means for You
  Posted on July 21, 2026
  If you've ever had a house sale collapse weeks before completion, you'll know exactly why the government has just published its Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap. The figures behind it are stark: around one in three property transactions in England now falls through before completion, costing consumers an estimated £400 million a year between them. With conveyancing firms this month being urged by their own regulator, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, to get behind the plan, this is a reform that's moving from paper to practice — and it's worth understanding now, whether you're buying, selling, or both.
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• Feel You're 'Just Getting By'? You May Still Owe IHT
  Posted on July 21, 2026
  Nearly half of UK homeowners aged 45 and over describe themselves as "just getting by" financially — yet new research published this week shows their estates average £410,252, well over the £325,000 inheritance tax threshold. The survey of 2,000 homeowners by savings platform Flagstone found that 38% had estimated estates worth £500,000 or more, and 13% were sitting above £1 million. If you've never thought of yourself as someone with an inheritance tax problem, this research suggests you might want to look again.
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• New Law Strips Parental Rights From Child Sex Offenders
  Posted on July 21, 2026
  Under a legal quirk that has troubled family lawyers and protective parents for years, a parent convicted of sexually abusing a child could still, in principle, retain parental responsibility for that child or their siblings — with the power to weigh in on schooling, medical treatment, and other major decisions. The Victims and Courts Act 2026, which has now received Royal Assent, closes that gap. For the first time, courts will be required, not merely permitted, to strip parental responsibility from offenders convicted of the most serious child sexual offences, including cases where a child was conceived through rape.
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• Will Disputes Are Rising - What Executors Should Know
  Posted on July 16, 2026
  New figures show that contentious probate disputes have risen by 56% over the past five years, with caveat applications — the legal tool used to freeze a probate application while a dispute is investigated — up 12% in the most recent year alone, reaching 11,589 by mid-2025. If you're currently administering an estate, or expect to be named as an executor, this surge means the odds of a will being challenged are meaningfully higher than they were even a few years ago, and it's worth understanding why before a dispute catches you off guard.
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• Gazumping Hits 37% - How Buyers Can Protect a Sale
  Posted on July 16, 2026
  New industry data published this week shows that 37% of homebuyers in England and Wales have been gazumped — outbid by a rival buyer after already agreeing a price — up from around a third just two years ago. Almost eight in ten buyers say they want the practice banned outright, and more than half of those gazumped ended up out of pocket, with the average cost of a collapsed deal now running to around £2,400 in wasted survey fees, legal costs, and mortgage arrangement charges. If you're currently buying a home, this is a timely reminder that "sold subject to contract" means exactly that — subject to contract, and nothing more.
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• Family Courts Change How Child Contact Is Decided
  Posted on July 16, 2026
  The government has confirmed it will repeal the presumption of parental involvement from the Children Act 1989 through the new Courts and Tribunals Bill, ending a legal starting point that has shaped child arrangements decisions in England and Wales for over a decade. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said the change means "every child deserves to be safe, every victim deserves to be heard, and every family deserves a justice system they can trust." For any parent currently negotiating, or expecting to negotiate, arrangements for their children after a separation, this is a genuine shift in how the family court approaches contact — not just a technical legal tweak.
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• Property Fraud Is Rising - Is Your Home at Risk?
  Posted on July 16, 2026
  New figures obtained from HM Land Registry this month show 55 confirmed cases of property fraud between April 2025 and March 2026, where criminals impersonated homeowners in an attempt to sell their property, remortgage it, or transfer ownership using forged documents. It sounds like a small number set against the millions of homes in England and Wales, but for the handful of families it happens to, the consequences can be devastating — and the experts behind the figures warn the true scale is likely far higher, since fraud attempts that are caught before completion often go unrecorded.
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• Unregulated Will Writers - Why It Pays to Be Careful
  Posted on July 16, 2026
  It's a fact that surprises most people the first time they hear it: anyone in England and Wales can call themselves a "will writer," advertise their services, and charge people to draft a legally binding document deciding who inherits their home, savings, and possessions — with no qualifications, no insurance, and no regulator overseeing them at all. Concerns about exactly this gap led the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the unregulated will-writing sector, after complaints about misleading advertising, unfair contract terms, and pressure-selling to vulnerable customers. With more people than ever making a will at home or online, it's worth understanding what that lack of regulation actually means for your family.
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• Mortgage Rate War: Why Now Could Be Time to Move
  Posted on July 12, 2026
  Nationwide cut its mortgage rates for the third time in a month last week. Yorkshire Building Society went one better, cutting twice in a single week. Across the market, fixed rates fell by as much as 0.26% in just seven days as lenders scrambled to undercut one another. If you've been sitting on the fence about moving house or remortgaging, this is the kind of week that should get your attention.
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• Stamp Duty Reform: Could It Unlock Your Move?
  Posted on July 10, 2026
  A new Housing Mobility Report published this week found that 28% of owner-occupiers who've delayed a house move named stamp duty as the main reason. According to the report's authors, scrapping the tax altogether could bring more than 300,000 homes onto the market within a year — and over 750,000 within three. A cross-party Parliamentary committee is now pushing the government to launch a formal consultation on alternatives to stamp duty before the end of 2026.
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• Pension Inheritance Tax Changes: Executors Beware
  Posted on July 10, 2026
  New HMRC guidance published this week has laid bare just how complicated the government's plan to bring pensions into inheritance tax actually is — prompting solicitors to warn of "chaos" for the executors who will have to make it work. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and death benefits will count towards the value of your estate for inheritance tax purposes for the first time. If you're likely to be named as an executor for a family member, or you're planning your own estate, this is a change worth understanding well before it takes effect.
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• Probate Fees Rise 75% From 13 July: What It Means
  Posted on July 9, 2026
  From 13 July 2026, the fee to apply for a grant of probate in England and Wales rises from £300 to £526 — a jump of more than 75% in a single change. If you're currently gathering paperwork to apply for probate, or expect to be handling a loved one's estate in the coming weeks, the date on your application could make a real difference to what you pay.
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• No Will? Unmarried Partners Inherit Nothing Under the Law
  Posted on July 8, 2026
  When the government launched its consultation on cohabiting couples' rights on 5 June 2026, it drew attention not just to what happens when a relationship ends — but to what can go wrong when a partner dies. Under England and Wales' current intestacy rules, an unmarried partner who dies without leaving a will passes nothing at all to their surviving partner. Not automatically, and not easily.
  
  For a couple who may have shared a home, raised children, and built a life together over decades, this is a legal reality that many people simply do not know exists — until it is too late to do anything about it.
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• Cohabiting Couples: Your Legal Rights Are Changing
  Posted on July 8, 2026
  On 5 June 2026, the government launched a consultation called "A Fairer End to Relationships" — a title that says a great deal about what has gone wrong until now. For decades, millions of cohabiting couples in England and Wales have lived together under the false belief that they have automatic legal rights over property, finances, and assets when a relationship ends. They don't. Now, for the first time in a generation, that could be about to change.
  
  Resolution — the professional body representing more than 6,500 family law solicitors — described the announcement as "a welcome and significant step towards ending the endemic unfairness for cohabiting couples."
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• UK House Prices Stall: What Buyers and Sellers Need Now
  Posted on July 8, 2026
  Zoopla's latest house price data, published on 30 June 2026, confirms what many buyers and sellers have been sensing for months: the property market has lost momentum. Annual house price inflation has slowed to just 1.4%, sales agreed are down 7% year-on-year, and three in five homes listed since January remain unsold. In London, prices have actually fallen — by 0.2% — for the ninth month in a row.
  
  That's quite a shift from the post-pandemic years. For anyone in the middle of a move, or thinking about one, this data is worth understanding carefully before you act.
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• Lifetime ISA Is Being Replaced: What to Do Now
  Posted on July 8, 2026
  If you've been saving in a Lifetime ISA to help buy your first home, a significant change is on the horizon. On 23 June 2026, the government released consultation proposals to replace the Lifetime ISA with a brand-new First-Time Buyer ISA — and MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis has been at the forefront of making sense of what it means in practice.
  
  The changes are not yet law. But with a consultation deadline in mid-August and a possible launch date of April 2027, first-time buyers need to understand their options now — especially if they're actively saving or planning to buy in the next year or two.
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• Divorce Costs Rise as Family Court Fees Increase
  Posted on July 8, 2026
  From 13 July 2026, the fee for filing a court document rises by 27%, from £11 to £14. It sounds like a small change, but for anyone going through divorce proceedings, it's one more cost on top of a family court system where the average wait from application to final financial order has stretched to 74 weeks — well over a year. If you're separating, or already mid-proceedings, the combination of rising fees and lengthening waits is worth understanding now.
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• New Rights for Cohabiting Couples: What Could Change
  Posted on June 18, 2026
  The Ministry of Justice made headlines last week when it launched a consultation that could transform the legal standing of an estimated 3.5 million unmarried couples in England and Wales. For the first time, the government is formally considering giving cohabitants automatic inheritance rights, stronger financial protections on separation, and the option to make legally binding prenuptial agreements — rights that married couples have long taken for granted.
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• How to Avoid Overpaying Inheritance Tax on an Estate
  Posted on June 16, 2026
  When Justine Fernandes and her brother began sorting through their mother's estate after her death, they did what many grieving families do: they estimated what everything was worth, submitted those figures to HMRC, and paid their inheritance tax bill. The total came to £8,000. The problem was that the correct bill should have been just £1,400. They had overpaid by £6,600 — not through dishonesty, but through the very common mistake of overvaluing household belongings based on sentiment rather than market reality. Their story, published this week by Which?, is far from unusual.
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• Stamp Duty 2026: Why More First-Time Buyers Are Paying
  Posted on June 16, 2026
  It used to be that stamp duty was barely a concern for most first-time buyers. Not any more. New research published this week shows that 30% of first-time buyers in England are now purchasing homes above the stamp duty threshold — double the proportion from a decade ago. In London, the picture is even starker: 78% of first-time buyers are now paying stamp duty, with an average bill of £12,690. Even in the North West and West Midlands, growing numbers of buyers are crossing the threshold for the first time.
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• Ground Rent Cap 2027: What Leasehold Buyers Must Know
  Posted on June 11, 2026
  Over four million residential leaseholders in England and Wales are set to benefit from a significant policy change after the government announced this week that the ground rent cap will be implemented in late 2027 — a full year earlier than originally planned. The final legislation is expected to pass before Parliament's summer recess this July, making this one of the most concrete pieces of leasehold reform to reach the statute book in years.
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• How to Avoid Overpaying Inheritance Tax on an Estate
  Posted on June 11, 2026
  When Justine Fernandes and her brother began sorting through their mother's estate after her death, they did what many grieving families do: they estimated what everything was worth, submitted those figures to HMRC, and paid their inheritance tax bill. The total came to £8,000. The problem was that the correct bill should have been just £1,400. They had overpaid by £6,600 — not through dishonesty, but through the very common mistake of overvaluing household belongings based on sentiment rather than market reality. Their story, published this week by Which?, is far from unusual.
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• £500 Mediation Vouchers Extended: Help for Separating Families
  Posted on June 8, 2026
  The government has extended the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme and launched a suite of new digital tools to support separating families — news that will matter to thousands of couples currently facing difficult decisions about children, finances, and their futures without wanting to end up in a courtroom. If you are going through a separation or divorce, this scheme may help you resolve things more quickly, more affordably, and with less lasting damage to everyone involved.
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• UK House Prices Flat: What It Means If You're Moving
  Posted on June 5, 2026
  Government figures released this week reveal the average UK house price has stalled at £268,000 — and that number tells only part of the story. Residential property transactions have fallen 40.9% compared to the same period last year, painting a picture of a market that many buyers and sellers are quietly stepping back from. If you are thinking about moving in 2026, understanding what this data actually means in practice is more useful than the headline figure alone.
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• A Major Firm Is Exiting Budget Wills — Is Yours Good Enough?
  Posted on June 3, 2026
  Irwin Mitchell's exit from the budget wills market is a timely prompt for anyone who made a will through a supermarket, bank, or online template to check whether it actually protects what they think it does.
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• Mortgage Prisoners: Act Before the October 2026 Deadline
  Posted on June 2, 2026
  For thousands of homeowners still trapped on eye-watering standard variable rates since the financial crisis, the name of their lender has changed again — but their situation has not. In October 2025, around 13,000 mortgage prisoners held by Co-op Bank's inactive subsidiaries were transferred to Aspiro Mortgages, a trading name of Topaz Finance and yet another inactive lender. One affected borrower captured the reality plainly: "We have truly struggled and had to rely on foodbanks. All our money has to go towards the mortgage."
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