Opening times: Monday-Friday, 9.00am-5.15pm
Free initial meeting
A free initial chat with one of our bright experts lasts around 30 minutes and usually takes place over a cup of tea or coffee, either at our Christchurch or Ringwood offices.
At present, most appointments will take place over the phone or by video link. Where a face-to-face meeting is necessary, we have put the required safety measures in place.
Call us on 01202 499255 or fill in your details below, and one of our friendly team will be in touch to arrange your free meeting.
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Our services for you
We offer a full range of services for businesses and individuals. Whether you are completing a complex management buy out or writing your will, our team of experts are here for you. See our full list of services below.
Our conveyancing and property solicitors are recognised for their property law expertise by the Law Society with the Conveyancing Quality Scheme Accreditation. This means you can trust our conveyancing solicitors in Christchurch to conduct your case with skill, efficiency, and reliability.
Our property expertise includes:
Buying a house
Our specialist conveyancing solicitors are experienced in assisting clients in buying a house, whether they are first time buyers or otherwise.
The property team at Frettens is one of the largest in the area and, being based in Christchurch, they are well versed in undertaking property transactions both locally and outside the conurbation.
Selling a house
The team in Christchurch is equally knowledgeable when it comes to selling a house on your behalf, assisting in all legal aspects.
In Christchurch alone, we have over a dozen property lawyers who would be happy to aid you in selling your home.
Our family law department in Christchurch boasts a strong team of knowledgeable family solicitors who would be happy to assist you.
Whether you’re going through a challenging family breakdown or making decisions over child arrangements, our family lawyers can help ensure you reach the best outcome.
Our family law expertise includes:
Divorce Solicitors
Divorce, relationship breakdown and civil partnership dissolution are never easy, and a decision to proceed isn’t usually taken lightly.
However, our divorce solicitors in Christchurch are on hand to guide and support you through the process.
Our sympathetic divorce lawyers have been described as ‘kind, understanding and professional’ by clients and can assist you in sole or joint divorce.
Child Law
We understand how delicate child law matters can be, so our Christchurch-based child law solicitors will always keep your interests and the welfare and happiness of your children at heart.
With our assistance, we hope you’ll be able to move into the future feeling confident and secure.
Our employment solicitors in Christchurch are experienced in all aspects of employment and HR law and would be happy to assist you, whether that involves making or defending a claim, or more generalised advice.
Despite our office being based in Christchurch, we have a wealth of experience in assisting clients nationwide.
Our expertise includes:
Employee claim
If you’re having issues with your employer, our employment solicitors in Christchurch can advise you on your legal rights, help you make a complaint (including using ACAS Early Conciliation), and conduct Employment Tribunal proceedings on your behalf.
Our employment lawyers have plenty of experience in doing so for clients in Christchurch and outside of the local area.
The team have been described as ‘supportive’, ‘friendly’ and ‘professional’ and praised for our communication.
When legal disputes creep into our personal lives, it’s easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed about the whole situation.
Our dispute solicitors in Christchurch will take the weight off your shoulders by providing clear, uncomplicated advice and helping you negotiate a harmonious resolution without resorting to court wherever possible.
Our expertise includes:
When loved ones pass away, we understand that the last thing you want to deal with are will disputes. Unfortunately, when people are grieving, it’s easy for disagreements over Wills and inheritance to escalate quickly, causing rifts in families which can take years to heal.
Whether you’re worried the deceased was influenced into leaving gifts against their wishes, that they were not of sound mind when making the Will, or that the Executors are not fulfilling their wishes properly, we can help you dispute a will or defend a claim relating to one.
Our will disputes team in Christchurch can also help you make a claim where the deceased has died intestate or left you out of their Will, leaving you in financial difficulty.
We are one of the few firms in the South, let alone Christchurch, that have a dedicated leasehold property department.
Our leasehold property solicitors are experienced in all areas of leasehold law, and can assist you in lease extensions, enfranchisement and more.
Our expertise includes:
Whether you’re in danger of having a ‘short lease’, want to vary your ground rent or want to extend your lease for any other reason; our lease extension lawyers can assist you.
Our leasehold team can assist you through the entire process of lease extension, ensuring the proper legal process is followed and the your extension is completed promptly and with cost effectiveness in mind.
Enfranchisement is the process of leaseholders forcing the sale of a freehold property to them, allowing them to manage their own building.
Our enfranchisement solicitors and leasehold specialists have experience in advising in such transactions and would be happy to help you and, in cases of collective enfranchisement, anyone else involved.
Firstly, our enfranchisement lawyers will see if you’re eligible for enfranchisement and, after drawing up the notice, negotiating and completing all of the other steps, complete the enfranchisement for you.
Preparing for the future may end up being one of the most important things you can do to protect your wealth and ensure your loved ones are provided for after you die.
Our Wills and probate solicitors in Christchurch can provide advice in relation to all Wills and estate administration related matters, as well as tax planning.
Whether you are looking to make your estate plan, you’ve been appointed as an Executor under a deceased person’s Will, or you want to deal with the estate of a relative who died intestate (as an Administrator), we are here to help.
Our expertise includes:
Write a Will
Our Wills solicitors can help you to write a Will that reflects your best wishes and ensures that your loved ones are taken care of.
The team, who are based in Christchurch but offer support across the nation, always draft Wills with tax efficiency in mind and can provide advice about planning for Inheritance Tax and your options for reducing it.
For our efforts in Will writing, we are recognised in the Legal 500, the UK’s biggest guide to law, and have received hundreds of independent reviews in the last year.
Our tax solicitors in Christchurch can assist you in tax planning.
With the dramatic rises in property prices over recent years, Inheritance Tax is no longer just something for the extremely wealth to worry about. Many people’s estates will now fall above the tax-free threshold of £325,000.
However, with a well thought out estate plan, and a competent tax lawyer on your side, you can minimise your liability for Inheritance Tax, allowing you to leave as much of your wealth and property to your loved ones as possible after you die.
Our expertise includes:
- Will drafting
- Main Residence Nil Rate Band
- Lifetime gifting
- Trusts
- Equity transfer
- Inheritance Tax relief, such as Agricultural Property Relief and Business Relief
As living costs go up, increasing numbers of homeowners are becoming asset rich but cash poor. It’s therefore becoming common for people to struggle with their everyday expenses, let alone pay for longer-term needs such as care and home help.
If you’re over 55 and own a property worth at least £70,000, you may be eligible for equity release, a method of freeing up money in your home whilst allowing you to continue living there. Our specialist equity release solicitors in Christchurch can provide informative, understanding advice about your options, including helping you choose which method of equity release is right for you and handling the conveyancing process on your behalf.
Our services for your business
Our contract solicitors in Christchurch can provide advice on all kinds of business contractual matters, whether they concern 2 businesses or business to consumer relations.
Our expertise includes:
At Frettens, our specialist team in Christchurch can help you buy a business. From buying to forming new companies and mergers and acquisitions, our business solicitors would be happy to help you.
When buying a business, the legal process can be complicated, and time is often at the essence in business transactions; so we’ll structure our advice in line with your commercial goals and business strategy to achieve a positive result efficiently and cost-effectively.
Our expertise includes:
- Company formations
- Mergers, acquisitions, and disposals
- Shareholder agreements and business partnership agreements
- Management buy-outs
- Share buy-backs
- Joint ventures
- Restructuring and reorganisation
- Family company succession
Our business sale solicitors, based in Christchurch, can assist you in selling your business, no matter how complicated the transaction.
We can help you through a quick and easy transaction that gives you a fair pay for your business.
Our commercial property solicitors in Christchurch advise investors, property owners, landlords, developers, and commercial tenants on their property matters and disputes.
We’ll quickly get to grips with your business strategy and tailor our approach accordingly so you can expect to receive high quality advice which is relevant to your circumstances.
Our expertise includes:
Cash flow is one of the major issues which face businesses in today’s society. If you are owed money by an individual or company, we can help you recover it.
Our specialist debt recovery team in Christchurch act quickly without delay to ensure you have the best possible chance of recovering as much of your money as possible.
In many situations, we are able to settle debt recovery matters amicably, preserving your relationship with the debtor. However, if it does become necessary to take the matter to court, we’ll work vigorously to recover every penny you are owed.
Our expertise includes:
- Negotiations in line with the Civil Pre-Action Protocol
- Money claims
- Statutory Demands
- Bankruptcy or insolvency claims
- Enforcing money judgements through the County Court or the High Court
Disputes which arises in the course of business can have significant impact on its ability to run its day-to-day activities as court proceedings are lengthy, expensive, and stressful for everyone involved. In addition, personal disputes can also be incredibly difficult.
Our dispute resolution solicitors in Christchurch aim to help you resolve your business or private dispute harmoniously wherever possible. As experts in negotiation, we have an impressive track record for settling disputes out of court, saving the business considerable hassle and publicity.
However, we’ll never advise you to settle out of court just because it’s the “easy” option. If necessary, we will help you start a legal claim and fight robustly to preserve your business’s financial and reputational interests until the very end.
Employment law evolves and changes so often, it’s challenging for employers to keep up without the assistance of a specialist employment solicitor.
We cannot stress enough how important it is to comply fully with your responsibilities as an employer and we can provide ongoing support and guidance to help you avoid unnecessary disputes.
Where disputes do unfortunately arise, we’ll be by your side throughout the process, guiding you through settlement discussions and taking all possible steps to preserving your commercial interests whilst addressing the issues raised by your employee.
We also advise employees, giving us a unique insight into both sides of any dispute which we can use to our advantage during settlement negotiations in order to find a resolution quickly and efficiently.
Employer claim
Whether you are an employer defending a claim, looking to mitigate claims, or looking for more general employment advice; our employment lawyers would be happy to help.
Our team of employment solicitors are recommended in the Legal 500, the UK’s biggest guide to law firms.
The team specialise in all aspects of contentious and non-contentious employment law, offering practical, common-sense advice to keep you up to date with any and all legal requirements. We also offer HR training courses.
If you’re a HR processional who’s looking to improve and boost your business’s policies and procedures in line with employment law, we can offer you bespoke training courses which are developed specifically to meet your needs.
Examples of our training courses include:
- Disciplinary action and grievance procedures
- Discrimination and harassment
- Redundancy and restructuring advice
- Legislation updates
- Performance management
- Absence management
- Recruitment procedures
- Firing procedures
- Immigration and recruiting from outside the EU
Purchasing buy to let property can be a lucrative investment, however, renting on the private market also comes with many legal responsibilities. With landlord and tenant law changing rapidly, it’s beneficial to enlist the guidance of a specialist landlord solicitor, in Christchurch.
We offer comprehensive landlord and tenant advice, including:
- Tenancy agreement drafting and review
- Rent deposit advice
- Maintenance and advice about landlords’ legal duties
- Rent arrears advice
- Evictions and Section 21 and Section 8 notices
Local courts near Christchurch
Bournemouth and Poole County Court and Family Court
This court based near the centre of Bournemouth hears civil cases and family cases relating to:
- Adoption
- Bankruptcy
- Family Law
- Domestic violence
- Housing possession
- Money claims
Southampton Combined Court Centre
This court based in Southampton city centre hears mainly civil cases relating to:
- Bankruptcy
- Family Law
- Domestic violence
- Employment
- Housing possession
- Money claims
- Social security
Salisbury Law Courts
This court hears mainly civil cases relating to:
- Bankruptcy
- Family Law
- Housing possession
- Money claims
- Social security
Winchester District Probate Registry
The Winchester District Probate Registry takes probate applications from anywhere in the country, particularly from the surrounding Hampshire area, including Bournemouth, Southampton, Portsmouth, and Basingstoke.
