Start with the title and seller’s replies
The title register and referenced documents can reveal restrictions and rights affecting the property. A lease adds its own provisions. Ask your conveyancer to identify what must be supplied from those documents, rather than interpreting a title plan as proof of an exact boundary or of unrestricted development rights. [2][4]
The government’s selling guide identifies the Property Information Form, commonly called TA6, and the leasehold TA7 form. Obtain the current version from your conveyancer and answer on the basis of what you actually know. Explain missing records rather than guessing that previous owners must have obtained approval. Inaccurate information can expose a seller to a claim. [1]
Connect each alteration to its evidence
A useful way to organise the file is one folder per project, recording the work, date, approval route and completion evidence. Include the following where relevant:
- Planning decision notices, approved drawings and the evidence supporting any claim that the work is lawful without a further permission. The council planning register is the starting point for decisions. [5][6]
- Building-control application and inspection records, together with the completion or final certificate that relates to the work. Where a private provider ceased acting, include the notice and reversion history. [7]
- Relevant installer certificates and guarantees. Certain installation work can be self-certified through competent person schemes; that does not replace approval of unrelated structural alterations. [8]
- Party wall documents and any water-company agreement affecting the work. These answer different questions from a planning decision. [9][10]
Do not describe an engineer’s report as a council completion certificate. Building-control inspections and the engineer’s defined services have their own scope. Make clear which professional prepared each document and what it actually covers. [11][12]
Expect follow-up questions where records do not match
Where a room layout or extension cannot be reconciled with the paperwork, provide the discrepancy to the conveyancer and technical adviser. For eligible unauthorised work, regularisation may require inspection and alterations; that is not an administrative copy request. Redbridge’s published guidance explains that the council may require work to be exposed, removed or corrected to establish compliance. [13]
Any existing indemnity policy should be supplied with its schedule and wording, not just a statement that insurance exists. Product cover has limits and conditions, and the work and defect insured need to match the problem being investigated. [14]
The buyer’s solicitor may also be acting for a lender. UK Finance’s handbook contains general and lender-specific instructions; it cannot be assumed that every lender takes the same position on an absent document. [3]
What may change
The government’s roadmap published on 19 June 2026 proposes mandatory sales packs before listing and later binding conditional contracts. These require legislation; the roadmap is not itself an operative requirement to provide a new statutory sales pack for every sale today. [15]
For the current transaction, agree a specific outstanding-document list with the conveyancer and keep versions and replies consistent.