A flat in Marylebone with sixty years left on its lease is a different asset at death than it was at purchase. The lease has shortened, the price of extending it has risen, and the executors may need to serve notice to extend it, or sell the right to extend along with the flat, before the estate can be wound up. In Westminster, where the leasehold mansion flat is the typical home, a Westminster will solicitor plans for this: who inherits, whether to extend the lease during the owner's lifetime, and how inheritance tax will be paid when the main asset cannot easily be split.
The borough's wealth raises the stakes but not the rules. Without a will, intestacy divides an estate by a fixed formula that gives an unmarried partner nothing, however long the relationship. Belgravia and Mayfair estates often involve overseas property, trusts and owners never domiciled here, and the switch in April 2025 to a residence-based test for inheritance tax has sent many long-term residents back to their solicitors. Charitable legacies are common, and a gift to charity can reduce the rate of tax on the rest of the estate.
Lasting powers of attorney matter as much as the will to the ageing residents of the mansion blocks in St John's Wood, Maida Vale and Pimlico; without one, a family faces a slow Court of Protection application when a parent loses capacity.
After a death the same firms obtain the grant, settle tax with HMRC, deal with the freeholder and distribute the estate. Wills and powers of attorney are usually fixed-fee; probate may be hourly, fixed or a percentage, so ask which.
Westminster's will and probate solicitors are listed below, verified firms first. See the explainers on wills, trusts and probate, what a will costs, probate costs and lasting powers of attorney, or the general guide to will solicitors.
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