Highgate Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in London, and the houses around it are among the most valuable in the north of the city, which makes Highgate and Muswell Hill the part of Haringey where inheritance tax planning is a serious business. A will solicitor here spends time on lifetime gifts, trusts for grandchildren, the treatment of a house bought decades ago for a fraction of its value, and on lasting powers of attorney for owners who intend to stay in those houses as long as they can.
Tottenham presents different problems. Many of the borough's older Caribbean and Cypriot residents own property both here and abroad, and an English will may not govern a house in Kingston or Larnaca; the usual answer is a will in each country, drafted so that neither revokes the other. Council and housing association tenancies cannot be left by will at all, and the rules on succession to a tenancy, which generally allow only one, cause real hardship for families who assumed the flat would pass down. Unmarried partners and stepchildren get nothing under the intestacy rules, and the estates of people who died alone and without a will in Tottenham or Wood Green are a regular source of family disputes.
Probate work is the same across Haringey: the grant, the inheritance tax account, selling the house, paying the debts and distributing to the beneficiaries, with the executor personally liable for mistakes. Contested wills, often alleging that a carer or one child had undue influence over an elderly parent, are becoming more common.
Wills and powers of attorney are usually fixed-fee; for probate, ask whether the firm charges a fixed fee, an hourly rate or a percentage of the estate.
The wills and probate firms serving Haringey are listed below, verified first. The guides to wills, trusts and probate, what a will costs, probate costs and lasting powers of attorney give the background, and the general will solicitors page explains the service.
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