I am currently renting a property but am looking to buy a house and I have two questions. Firstly, so that I can work out when to give notice to my landlord, how long does it usually take for a sale to conclude once an offer has been accepted? (My lease says I have to give one month’s notice.) Secondly, would it be cheaper if I used the same solicitor as the seller?

When my father remarried in 1997, his new wife moved into our family home. At dad’s wishes, she continued to live in the house after he died in 2019. When our stepmother went into a nursing home with dementia earlier this year, I expected the family home would be sold to fund her care, and my sister and I would share the remaining proceeds after her death. However, my sister has confessed that dad made the house over to her before he died.

My mother was hospitalised after seeing her GP due to heart problems. She had been diagnosed with heart failure a couple of years ago but when she saw her GP her symptoms were severe and an ECG carried out at the surgery was abnormal.

During lockdown we allowed our staff to work from home, to ensure the business remained viable and jobs were protected. Post pandemic, several staff members wanted to continue working from home and we agreed they could. Now, however, after closely monitoring the situation for a year we feel it is necessary to have all staff back in the office to regain the efficiency levels we achieved pre pandemic. We foresee there will be objections to this. Can employees refuse to comply?

I run a small manufacturing business that started in my garden workshop with one 3D printer. Now there are four of us in two garden workshops. My dilemma is that I don’t know whether to buy or rent some commercial premises, or whether I should speak to an accountant or a solicitor to help me decide. From a legal perspective, what are the pros and cons?

I have seen a lot on the news about the Prison Capacity Crisis and various things the Government are planning to do to ease it. However, there is so much different stuff being bandied about in the papers and other media that I’m really confused about whether my partner stands a chance of being released early.

I have worked for my current employer for almost twelve years and believe I have done my job well. However, I have just been overlooked for promotion for the fourth time in two years and I believe it is because my director made personal advances towards me that I rejected. At the time I was very upset as the advances were tantamount to sexual harassment, but I didn’t tell anyone as I found it embarrassing and believed a complaint might be held against me.

My current husband and I have recently married. We each have two grown-up children from previous marriages and sold our homes to pool resources and buy a new home together. Now we need to make new Wills. We want to ensure our surviving spouse has a lifetime interest in our home if one of us dies and that all our children get an equal share of our estate. To keep costs down, should we make a joint Will?

I trust my fiancé implicitly, but my family are more sceptical and think I should set up a pre-nuptial agreement before we get married in October, to protect the sizeable inheritance I got from my grandparents. It is worth mentioning that my girlfriend comes from a less privileged background than I do and earns only a fraction of what I earn as a director of my family’s business. What is your view on prenups?

I rarely saw my cousin in later years but am sole executor of his Will. He now has terminal cancer, so I will soon need to execute my duties. Because I know so little of his affairs, I am worried about knowing what, if any, debts he has that need paying, and how I can ensure I am not held personally liable if I miss any. It seems insensitive to ask him. What can I do?