Brighton & Hove is a city of unmarried couples, single-person households and people who live a long way from the families they grew up with, and the intestacy rules are unkind to all three. A partner of twenty years who was never married or in a civil partnership inherits nothing automatically; a flat held in one name passes to parents or siblings the deceased may not have spoken to in years; a chosen family of friends has no standing at all. Will solicitors in Brighton & Hove write many wills for people whose lives do not fit the default.
The city's property adds its own problems. A one-bedroom flat in Hove or Kemptown may be the most valuable thing a person owns, which can bring inheritance tax into view. Older residents in the seafront blocks and in Saltdean and Rottingdean ask about lasting powers of attorney, one for finances and one for health and welfare, so that a partner or friend rather than a distant relative can act if capacity is lost; without one, the Court of Protection must appoint a deputy, which takes months.
Trusts are used to protect a share of the home for children from an earlier relationship, or to let a partner stay in the flat for life before it passes on. After a death the same firms obtain the grant of probate, settle any inheritance tax and distribute the estate; disputes between a surviving partner and the relatives are a growing part of the work.
Single and mirror wills and lasting powers of attorney are nearly always fixed-fee in Brighton & Hove. Probate is priced three ways, as a fixed sum, by the hour or as a percentage of the estate, so ask which applies.
The will and probate firms serving Brighton & Hove are listed below, verified firms first. Read wills, trusts and probate explained, what a will costs, what probate costs, lasting powers of attorney and the general guide to will solicitors.
