Howard & Co. has had an office on Market Street since 2014. Firm Partner, Andrew Baines and solicitor, Charlotte Binns, who work there, both grew up in Penistone, and between them they handle property transactions, wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and the administration of estates. For family law, social services, employment or a dispute, the Penistone team will put you in touch with the right solicitor at our Barnsley offices.
Telephone: 01226 762261
Email: law@howardandco.co.uk
Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
You can also reach us on our general enquiries number, 01226 215215.
You can find us easily on the High Street. Penistone train station is a 5 minute walk away and there are regular bus routes which stop at the bus stop opposite the office. Click here for directions on Google Maps.
Illness, mobility problems or caring responsibilities can make an office appointment hard to manage. If that applies to you, say so when you call. We are happy to come to you instead or book a call/video call.
Andrew Baines is a partner in the firm and works from the Penistone office. He was born and bred in the town, has worked in the legal profession since 2002 and joined Howard & Co. in 2009. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives in 2010, qualified as a solicitor in 2017 and was made a partner in 2019. He now heads the firm's conveyancing and private client work, which takes in residential and commercial property as well as wills, trusts, probate and estate administration.
Charlotte Binns is a conveyancing executive. She also grew up in Penistone. She first worked for the firm in 2000 and came back permanently in 2012, starting in the matrimonial department before moving into conveyancing and wills. She has been based at Market Street since the office opened, and today she deals with sales, purchases, leasehold transactions and new-build conveyancing under Andrew's supervision.
Residential conveyancing is a large part of Andrew and Charlotte's work: sales, purchases, remortgages and transfers of equity. A transfer of equity is the legal term for adding someone to the ownership of a property, or taking them off it, which often happens after a marriage or a separation.
If you are buying with a mortgage, your lender will need the legal work done by a solicitor or conveyancer it has approved, and we will check at the start that we can act for your lender. Cash buyers don't have that requirement, but the same checks on the property still protect them.
Penistone is in the Barnsley borough, so the local authority search for a house here goes to Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council. It covers two things. The council answers a standard set of questions, known as the CON29 enquiries, about matters such as planning history, road schemes and notices affecting the property. The local land charges register then shows restrictions that bind the property, for example planning permissions, listed building status or a tree preservation order.
We also order drainage and water and environmental searches. Parts of South Yorkshire were mined for coal, so we look at whether a coal mining search is advisable for the particular property rather than assuming either way. The results come to us, and we take you through anything significant before contracts are exchanged.
Leasehold and new-build purchases each need extra work. With a leasehold property we check the lease itself, including how long it has left to run, the ground rent and the service charge arrangements. With a new build we check the developer's contract and how completion will be timed, because that usually depends on when the build is finished.
The firm also advises landlords buying to let, and businesses buying, selling or leasing premises. We also deal with agricultural land and property matters. There is more on our land and property and business property pages.
If you haven't bought or sold before, our plain-English guide to conveyancing sets out what happens and in what order. To request a conveyancing quote, call Market Street on 01226 762261 with the address and the agreed price.
A straightforward will can often be ready within a few weeks. We meet you to take instructions, send you a draft to check and then arrange the signing. That last stage has to be done properly. You sign in front of two adult witnesses, who then sign in your presence, and the will cannot leave anything to a witness or to a witness's husband, wife or civil partner. We make the arrangements so that nothing is left to chance.
If you already have a will, read it again after a marriage, a separation, the birth of a child or a house move. Our wills page explains what happens to an estate when there is no will at all.
A Lasting Power of Attorney lets you choose who makes decisions for you if you become unable to make them yourself. There are two types. One covers property and financial affairs, such as bank accounts, bills and selling your home, and with your permission it can be used as soon as it is registered. The other covers health and welfare, including medical treatment and a move into a care home, and can only be used once you can no longer make those decisions yourself.
Both have to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before anyone can use them, and registration takes several weeks. It is far easier to make them while there is no urgency.
If you are an executor, or a relative of someone who died without a will, the first questions are usually whether you need to apply for probate and who is entitled to apply. We can answer both at a first meeting. If you want us to, we can then deal with the estate administration itself: gathering in the money and property, paying debts and any tax, and passing what remains to the people entitled to it.
Andrew's work covers probate, trusts and estate administration as well as property, which is useful when the estate includes a house that has to be sold.
Our family law and social services solicitors are based at the Barnsley offices on Victoria Road and Regent Street. Call Market Street or the general enquiries line and we will put you in touch with the right person.
For separation, divorce, arrangements for children and money after a relationship ends, start with our pages on divorce, separation and relationships and financial provision.
If social services have contacted you about your child, take advice early. We represent parents in care proceedings, attend meetings with the local authority and advise grandparents and other relatives who want to be involved in a child's future. Heather Wheelhouse, who heads our family and social services department, is accredited under the Law Society's Children Law Accreditation scheme.
If you qualify for legal aid, we will arrange the funding at the outset. For an emergency outside office hours, call our social services out-of-hours line on 07876 220431. Our social services page has more detail.
We also advise on problems at work, including settlement agreements, where the employer usually pays for the advice. After an accident, we offer a free initial consultation about whether you have a personal injury claim. For contract, consumer and debt problems, see dispute resolution, and for leases and tenancies, landlord and tenant matters.
For people in the villages around Penistone, Market Street is usually the nearest of our three offices. All four villages are in the Barnsley borough, so buying a house in any of them involves the same Barnsley Council search described above, and the same team can deal with it.
The firm supports several local events, including the Penistone Agricultural Show, where it is a Gold Sponsor with its own stand, the Wortley Beer Festival and the kit for Penistone Church FC's over-35s team. You can read about the show's history in our article marking its 150th show.
Howard & Co. Solicitors LLP was established in 1976, so 2026 marks fifty years since the firm began. As well as Penistone, we have two offices in Barnsley, on Victoria Road and Regent Street. The firm is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA number 8000040) and is a member of the Law Society's Conveyancing Quality Scheme. You can meet the rest of the team on our people page.
It is best to ring first so that the right person is free when you arrive, particularly for conveyancing or a will.
Bring photo identification and proof of your address, because for most types of work we are required to check who you are. The rest depends on the matter. If you are buying or selling, bring the estate agent's details and any mortgage offer or agreement in principle. If you are making a will, a rough list of what you own and the full names of the people you want to include will save time. If you are dealing with an estate, bring the death certificate and the will, if there is one.
Yes. You can use whichever of our three offices is most convenient, wherever you live. If your matter is handled by a colleague in Barnsley, the Penistone team will put you in touch.
That depends on the work. A conveyancing quote depends on the price, whether the property is freehold or leasehold and whether there is a mortgage. Before you instruct us, we will explain our charges and the likely third-party costs, such as search fees and the Land Registry fee. Visit our Costs Page for our up-to-date list of fees.
Penistone's postal town is Sheffield, which is why our address ends Sheffield S36 6BZ. The town itself is in the Barnsley borough, and this is our office for Penistone and the surrounding villages.
Call Market Street on 01226 762261 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, or email law@howardandco.co.uk. If it is easier to speak to someone in Barnsley, our general enquiries number is 01226 215215.
© Howard & Co Solicitors LLP. All Rights Reserved. Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, registration number 8000040.
