Each June many Wimbledon households hand their keys to a player, a coach or a broadcaster and go on holiday on the rent. It is a local tradition and, for property solicitors in Merton, a reliable source of questions: whether a two-week let is a tenancy or a licence, what the mortgage lender and the insurer need to be told, what happens to the deposit if the quarter-final goes badly, and whether a short let is permitted at all in a block of leasehold flats whose lease forbids it. The answer to the last is often no.
The rest of the year is more conventional but no less local. Wimbledon town centre and the streets around the station are full of leasehold flats, many in converted houses with leases short enough to need extending before a sale. Merton Park, Raynes Park and Wimbledon Chase have the Edwardian semis that families extend, and the side returns and loft conversions bring party wall awards and neighbour disputes. Morden and Mitcham have interwar houses, former council homes bought under the right to buy, and the newer flats along the Wandle and at Colliers Wood, where the service charge accounts and the building-safety certificate need reading before anyone exchanges. The All England Club's expansion plans have made planning and covenant questions a live issue in Wimbledon Park.
Landlords and tenants bring deposit, repair and possession disputes to the county court that covers the borough, and commercial leases on the Broadway and in Wimbledon Village turn on rent reviews and renewal rights.
Conveyancing is almost always a fixed fee; ask for a quote showing the fee, searches, Land Registry charges and stamp duty separately, and check what the firm adds for a leasehold flat.
The property solicitors closest to Merton are listed below, verified firms first. Useful background: what conveyancing is, the legal fees for selling a house, landlord and tenant law and neighbour disputes, plus the general property solicitors page.
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