A basement dig in Hampstead can take two years, cost more than a house elsewhere and end in court with the neighbours. Camden Council's planning rules now restrict how deep and how far a basement may go, but party wall awards, damage claims and rights of light remain the most common reason a Belsize Park or Highgate household sees a property solicitor outside a sale. Conveyancing at that end of the borough involves listed buildings, the covenants of the Bedford and other estates in Bloomsbury, and lenders cautious about unusual construction.
The other half of Camden's property law is social housing. Camden Council and the housing associations own a large share of the borough's homes, from the Regent's Park estate to Gospel Oak, and their tenants bring disrepair claims, succession disputes and defences to possession proceedings, which are heard at the Central London County Court on the Strand. Right to Buy leaseholders on those estates receive large major-works bills and need a solicitor who knows the consultation rules and the tribunal that can reduce them. Blocks re-clad after Grenfell, including the Chalcots towers, raise building safety questions for anyone buying or selling.
King's Cross has created a third market: new-build flats, shared ownership and build-to-rent blocks with service charges and estate rentcharges that need reading before exchange. Student lets around Bloomsbury and Euston generate deposit and licensing disputes, and the long-running HS2 works have left blighted streets around Euston with compulsory purchase and compensation claims still in progress.
Commercial work covers Camden Town's market leases, Holborn offices and the laboratories now being fitted out around the Crick and the Euston Road.
Conveyancing is fixed-fee almost everywhere; disputes and commercial leases are hourly or staged.
Property firms serving Camden are listed below, verified first. See what conveyancing involves, neighbour disputes, landlord and tenant law, the legal fees for selling a house and the general guide to property solicitors.
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