The Renters' Rights Act has changed the ground rules in a city with an unusually large rented sector. Fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies have given way to periodic ones, section 21 no-fault evictions have gone, and landlords who want possession must now rely on specific grounds and prove them in the county court at Plymouth Combined Court Centre. From the student terraces of Mutley and Greenbank to family houses across Stoke, Ford and Efford, that affects a very large number of Plymouth tenancies, and property solicitors in the city are busy with landlords redrafting agreements and tenants checking their new rights.
Buying is more straightforward but still has local wrinkles. First-time buyers use Forces Help to Buy and shared ownership; former council houses in Southway, Ernesettle and Whitleigh come with right-to-buy restrictions; the waterfront flats at Royal William Yard, Sutton Harbour and Millbay are leasehold, with service charges, building safety paperwork and lease lengths to check; and the new town at Sherford, east of the city, brings estate charges and management companies. Buyers in Saltash and Torpoint, across the Tamar, are in Cornwall, where mining searches apply.
Plymouth's older terraces raise party wall, boundary and shared-access questions, and conversions into flats without proper consents are a recurring problem for sellers. Commercial property work covers leases of workshops and marine units around the harbours and the Freeport, shops in the city centre and on the Barbican, and the development sites that keep appearing as the city rebuilds.
Fees for conveyancing are almost always fixed; ask for searches, Land Registry and any leasehold or new-build extras to be listed.
The property firms serving Plymouth are listed below, verified firms first and then by distance. Read landlord and tenant law, what conveyancing involves, the legal fees for buying a house and the general property solicitors guide.
