I can unreservedly recommend Christopher Martin at Michael Roger’s of Sevenoaks should you be requiring a surveyor for valuation purposes.
He undertook several valuations for lease extensions on behalf of our freehold company and we were very happy with the results. He knows the Forest Hill and surrounding areas extremely well and is conversant with property values in all such areas.
Thanks for the tips @Chipcity and @topofthehill I am now learning about these matters. Certainly know more now about leasehold flats than I did as a naive first time buyer 4/5 years ago. Hard to avoid leasehold unfortunately though.
I can’t talk about selling, but we purchased a flat with share of freehold in SE23 with the help of Shirley at Beverley Morris & Co on Lewisham High Street.They were very helpful and responsive, and I suspect they’d be just as good with the selling side of things.
Never use a cheap online conveyancing factory if you are buying or selling leasehold. It could lead to an expensive mistake!
And if you are tempted, check their online reviews first!
To update the thread as per recommendations on here I used the Partnership in Guildford to finally sell my flat & purchase a house. Their online portal is extremely useful for seeing progress & what is still to be done so you don’t waste their time asking admin questions. Also easy to upload and share docs, share bank details etc safely. Several issues cropped up selling my flat, including a lease extension. All of which were dealt with efficiently and with my best interests at heart. Communication with everyone in the chain was great, unlike my buyer’s conveyancer who nearly upset the apple cart. All sounds gushing but it is a stressful process. They were not the cheapest but I genuinely believe actually held our short but awkward chain together.
Congrats on completing the sale and buying a new house! Moving from a flat to a house changed my life for the better and I hope it does for you too.
Glad The Partnership worked well for you.
Not sure why I added all those details… 
waffling
But the leasehold part was important!
So far no regrets, albeit a lot of online purchases & cardboard everywhere due to lockdown
We’ve just sold and purchased and used Peter Lynn and Partners for conveyancing. Not the cheapest, but also not the most expensive but were well recommended for the standard of service. We were selling share of Freehold flat and they understood all the quirks about that too.
They were on the ball meaning we had a quick (2.5 months) from instructing to completion on sale and purchase, whilst having attention to detail. Was a stark comparison to the old fashioned, slow and completely unresponsive solicitors we used previously.
We used Ian and business card below.
Many solicitors have too much work and not enough staff. This is usually the reason for the conveyancing taking a long time. I have known cases where they made up excuses to explain the delays!
