A house in Putney or Southfields bought in the 1980s for what now sounds like a deposit is why so many Wandsworth families need a will solicitor rather than a form from a stationer. The home alone can lift an estate above the inheritance tax threshold, and once a pension, some savings and a flat bought for a child are added, the question is no longer who inherits but how much survives the tax. A solicitor can use the spouse and home exemptions, lifetime gifts and trusts where they genuinely help, and will say plainly when they do not.
The borough's housing shapes the rest. Mansion flats in Battersea and new flats at Nine Elms are leasehold, so a will has to deal with the lease and any share in the freehold company. Residents on the Alton estate and in the blocks around Clapham Junction who bought under the right to buy now own the most valuable thing in the family and often want it to go to the child who stayed. Unmarried partners, of whom Wandsworth has many, inherit nothing under the intestacy rules without a will.
Lasting powers of attorney are the other half of the job: one for property and money, one for health and welfare, both made while the person still has capacity. Left too late, the family faces the Court of Protection instead. After a death the same firms obtain the grant of probate, settle with HMRC and distribute the estate; an executor out of their depth can hand the whole process over.
Single and mirror wills and lasting powers of attorney are usually fixed-fee; probate may be fixed, hourly or a percentage of the estate, so ask which.
The will solicitors serving Wandsworth are listed below, verified firms first. Read wills, trusts and probate explained, how much a will costs, what probate costs and the guide to lasting powers of attorney, or see will solicitors in general.
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