Plenty of people in Hackney are wealthier than they realise. A terraced house in Clapton, De Beauvoir or Stoke Newington bought when the borough was unfashionable can now carry an estate well past the inheritance tax threshold, and its owners, many of them single, divorced or living with a partner they never married, often have no will at all. The intestacy rules then decide: a cohabiting partner inherits nothing, and a long-estranged spouse may take the lot. Will solicitors in Hackney spend more time undoing the consequences than preventing them.
Stamford Hill asks for wills of a different shape. Families are large, religious law has its own rules on who inherits, and many clients want a will that satisfies both English law and halachic requirements, which a solicitor familiar with the community can draft without conflict between the two.
Shoreditch founders and Hackney Wick artists bring assets that are easy to forget: shares in a private company, which may qualify for business property relief, and copyright in music, images and designs that goes on earning after death and needs someone to manage it. Lasting powers of attorney, for finances and for health and welfare, let a trusted person step in during life, and are cheap compared with an application to the Court of Protection when no one has one.
After a death, Hackney probate solicitors value the estate, settle tax with HMRC, obtain the grant and distribute the assets; an estate that is mostly house and little cash often needs a sale to pay the tax, and the timing matters. Wills and powers of attorney are generally fixed-fee; ask how probate is charged.
The firms below write wills and administer estates in and around Hackney, verified firms first. See wills, trusts and probate explained, how much a will costs, what a lasting power of attorney is, probate costs and the general will solicitors guide.
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