Every leaseholder in a tall block in Kensington and Chelsea now lives under rules written after Grenfell. The Building Safety Act 2022 created a regime for buildings over eighteen metres, a register of higher-risk buildings, an accountable person for each, and protections that stop most leaseholders being charged for cladding remediation; a property solicitor here checks, before any flat changes hands, whether the block is registered, whether the landlord's and leaseholder's certificates exist, and whether a lender will accept the external wall report. The council's own blocks in North Kensington, from Lancaster West to the Silchester estate, are being refurbished with the same questions attached.
Prime property is the other half of the work. Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Holland Park and South Kensington are leasehold markets dominated by the Cadogan and the other great estates, so lease extensions, collective enfranchisement and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which has already removed the two-year ownership rule and is changing the valuation rules, are daily business. Overseas buyers face the Register of Overseas Entities for company-held homes, the non-resident stamp duty surcharge and lenders' source-of-funds questions. The council's planning policy restricts basements, party wall awards accompany every major refurbishment, and short lets breach both the lease and the ninety-night rule.
The mansion blocks of Earl's Court and Kensington produce service-charge disputes, right-to-manage claims and forfeiture threats for the property tribunal, and the council and housing association estates produce disrepair and possession cases for the county court at Central London or Brentford. Commercial work covers the King's Road, Kensington High Street and the Portobello Road, with shop leases, rent reviews and 1954 Act renewals, and the long redevelopment of the Earl's Court site.
Conveyancing is normally fixed-fee; enfranchisement, building-safety and tribunal work is hourly or staged.
Property firms serving Kensington and Chelsea are listed below, verified first. Read what conveyancing involves, the legal fees for buying a house, landlord and tenant law and neighbour disputes, or the general guide to property solicitors.
Verified