A council tenancy cannot be left in a will. The rule surprises families on Camden's estates more than any other, because a home that has been the family's for forty years passes, if at all, under the succession rules of the Housing Act rather than under anything the tenant wrote down, and normally only once. Will solicitors in Camden spend time on this, on the Right to Buy flats that can be left but carry a lease and a service charge, and on the opposite problem in Hampstead and Highgate, where a house bought in the 1970s now pushes an estate well past the inheritance tax threshold.
Bloomsbury adds its own cases. Academics and medical staff who arrived from abroad may own property in two countries and need a will in each that does not revoke the other, and the residence-based inheritance tax rules introduced in April 2025 have changed the calculation for long-settled foreign nationals. Camden's charities and hospitals, Great Ormond Street among them, receive many legacies, and a well-drafted charitable gift can lower the tax rate on the rest of an estate.
Lasting powers of attorney are the second document every Camden solicitor recommends. One covers finances, one health and welfare, and without them a family facing dementia must apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship, which takes months. Unmarried partners, numerous in a borough of converted flats, inherit nothing under the intestacy rules and should not rely on a spoken promise.
Probate follows the same route everywhere: valuing the estate, paying any tax, obtaining the grant and distributing. Wills and powers of attorney are generally fixed-fee; probate may be hourly, fixed or a percentage, so ask.
Will and probate firms serving Camden are listed below, verified first. See wills, trusts and probate explained, how much a will costs, what probate costs, lasting powers of attorney and the general guide to will solicitors.
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