What Documents Do You Need to Sell a House in the UK?

By Lisa Hayes · 13 August 2026

To sell a house in the UK you need five things ready before you get far: proof of your identity, your title deeds (or the official copies from the Land Registry), a valid Energy Performance Certificate, a completed TA6 Property Information Form, and a TA10 Fittings and Contents Form. If your home is leasehold, add a management pack from your freeholder or managing agent. Get those in order early and your sale runs weeks faster. Leave them until a buyer is waiting and you hand the delay the perfect excuse to fall through.

That is the short version. The longer version matters, because "what documents do I need" hides a dozen sharper questions underneath it: what proves you own the place, what happens if you lost the deeds in 2004, whether your rating on the EPC can scupper a mortgage, what a leasehold pack costs and why it takes a month, and what the 2026 reforms mean for the paperwork you'll soon have to produce before you can even list. This guide answers all of them, in the order they'll actually come up.

What documents do you legally need to sell a house?

There is no single government form that says "you may now sell." Instead there's a bundle your solicitor or licensed conveyancer assembles, some of it legally required, some of it required in practice because no buyer's solicitor will proceed without it. Here's the core of it for a standard freehold house in England or Wales.

Everything else in this guide is a variation on that theme: extra proof for building work you've done, a whole additional pack if you're leasehold, and a warranty file if the house is a new build. If you want the legal steps laid out in sequence rather than by document, our legal checklist for selling a house walks through it chronologically.

Do you need proof of ID to sell your house?

Yes, and this one trips people up because it feels intrusive. Estate agents and conveyancers are legally obliged to carry out anti-money-laundering (AML) identity checks on sellers. You'll be asked for photographic ID (passport or driving licence) and a recent proof of address such as a utility bill or bank statement, usually dated within the last three months. Many firms now do this digitally in minutes.

Don't treat it as a formality to sort later. If your name has changed since you bought the house, say through marriage or divorce, you'll need the marriage certificate or deed poll to bridge the gap between the name on the title and the name on your passport. Sort that mismatch at the start, not the week before completion when everyone's in a hurry.

Where are my title deeds, and what if I've lost them?

Here's the reassuring bit. For the roughly nine in ten UK homes now registered with HM Land Registry, the old bundle of yellowing paper deeds is largely a historical keepsake. What matters is the digital title register and title plan, which your solicitor downloads as official copies. Lose the paper originals and your sale is unaffected.

The register confirms you're the legal owner, shows any mortgage (a "charge") secured against the property, and lists rights and restrictions, things like covenants, easements or a right of way. Your buyer's solicitor scrutinises all of it. If your property is unregistered, which is more common with older homes that haven't changed hands in decades, you'll need the physical deeds to prove title, and it's worth talking to your solicitor early because first registration adds time. We cover that scenario in detail in our guide to selling an unregistered property.

Do you need an EPC to sell, and does the rating matter?

You must have a valid Energy Performance Certificate, or at least have commissioned one, before your home is marketed, not before the offer and not before completion. Before the "For Sale" board goes up. It's a legal requirement in England and Wales, and agents can be fined for advertising without one.

An EPC rates the property from A (most efficient) to G (least) and stays valid for 10 years. If the previous owner had one done seven years ago and it's still live, you can reuse it. Check for free on the government's Find an Energy Certificate service before paying for a new assessment.

Does the rating itself matter? For the sale to happen, no, there is currently no minimum EPC rating you must hit to sell a home you live in. But it matters commercially. Homes rated F or G increasingly struggle with certain mortgage lenders, and energy-conscious buyers now factor running costs into their offers. A poor rating won't block your sale, but it can quietly shave money off it. For the full picture, see our dedicated guide on whether you need an EPC to sell a house.

What is the TA6, and what other forms will your solicitor send?

Once you instruct a solicitor, a small stack of standardised Law Society forms lands on your desk. These are the ones that actually describe your property to the buyer, and they carry legal weight. Fill them in badly and you're exposed; fill them in honestly and thoroughly and you protect yourself.

The TA6 is the big one. Its 6th edition, published in 2025, becomes mandatory for Conveyancing Quality Scheme firms from 30 March 2026, and it asks more probing questions than older versions, particularly around material information a buyer needs to make a decision. Answer it truthfully. If you knowingly hide a boundary dispute or a leaky extension, you can be sued for misrepresentation after completion, and "I forgot" is a weak defence. If you're unsure how far your disclosure duty stretches, read our breakdowns of the TA6 form and of material information when selling.

What extra paperwork do you need for building work?

This is where sales stall. If you've altered the property, and most people have, buyers' solicitors will want proof that the work was done legally and signed off. Track these down now, because chasing a certificate from a company that went bust in 2011 takes time you won't have mid-sale.

• Replacement windows and doors: a FENSA or CERTASS certificate, or building regulations completion certificate, for anything fitted since April 2002.
• Extensions, loft conversions, structural work: planning permission (where needed) and, crucially, a building regulations completion certificate.
• Electrical work: an EICR or a Part P certificate for notifiable work such as a new consumer unit or a rewire.
• A new boiler or gas work: the Gas Safe Building Regulations Compliance certificate issued at installation.
• Guarantees and warranties: damp-proofing, timber/woodworm treatment, roofing, cavity wall insulation, underpinning. Buyers want the transferable guarantee, not just your word.
• Solid fuel appliances (wood burners): a HETAS certificate or building control sign-off.

No certificate for old work? You're not automatically stuck. Depending on the issue, an indemnity insurance policy can satisfy the buyer's lender, or you can apply for regularisation from building control. But you want to know about the gap early, so you can present the fix as a solved problem rather than a nasty surprise.

What documents do you need to sell a leasehold flat?

Selling a leasehold flat means everything above plus a management information pack, and this is the part that most often drags a sale out. Your buyer's solicitor needs detailed information about the lease, the service charges, the reserve fund, any planned major works and the building's insurance. That information sits with your freeholder or managing agent, and you have to request it, usually via the standardised LPE1 form, alongside your TA7.

• £200–£500typical LPE1 pack cost (more in London)
• 1–4 weeksusual wait, sometimes longer
• 28 daysresponse window under the 2024 reforms

Those numbers are the reality in 2026. A management pack typically costs £200 to £500, though £600 to £800 is not unusual for London blocks, and it commonly takes one to four weeks to arrive, with poorly run freeholders dragging it out to six. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 introduced a 28-day response provision, but as of early 2026 the promised fee caps aren't yet in force, so a slow or expensive freeholder can still hold you up.

The practical move is simple:

1. The day you decide to sell, contact your managing agent or freeholder and ask how to request the LPE1 pack and what it costs.
2. Order and pay for it immediately, before you've even accepted an offer.
3. Gather your own leasehold paperwork in parallel: a copy of the lease, recent service charge statements and ground rent demands, and any Section 20 notices for major works.

If your lease is getting short, that's a separate and urgent issue, because a lease under about 80 years spooks lenders and buyers alike. Our guide to selling a flat with a short lease explains your options before you list.

What if it's a new build or a non-standard property?

Newer homes come with their own file. If your house is under 10 years old, buyers will expect the structural warranty (NHBC Buildmark, or an equivalent from Premier Guarantee, LABC or similar) that covers defects. Keep the policy documents together with any developer handover paperwork, appliance warranties and the completion certificate.

If the property is timber-framed, concrete, a converted chapel or anything a lender might call "non-standard construction," expect extra scrutiny and dig out any structural surveys or specialist reports you hold. Solar panels bring their own paperwork trail, owned panels need the MCS certificate and DNO notification, while leased panels need the roof-lease agreement that your buyer's lender will want to inspect closely.

How do the 2026 reforms change what you'll need upfront?

This is the shift worth understanding. On 19 June 2026 the government published its Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, and the direction of travel is clear: more information, earlier. The plan centres on a mandatory upfront sales pack, prepared before a property is even listed, containing searches, key facts about the property's condition, and, for leasehold, the lease terms and service-charge history.

The logic is to cut the wasted weeks (and collapsed sales) caused by problems surfacing late in conveyancing. Alongside the pack, ministers have signalled an intent to make contracts bind both parties earlier, to curb the ease with which buyers and sellers currently walk away after others have spent money. You don't need to wait for the law to change. A seller who already has their TA6, certificates and leasehold pack ready is, in effect, running the future system today, and reaping the speed now.

How much do these documents cost?

Most of the core paperwork is cheap or free, which is the good news. The costs that catch people out are the leasehold pack and, occasionally, a new EPC. Here's a realistic 2026 picture for England and Wales.

Notice the shape of it. The forms your solicitor supplies cost nothing extra; you're paying for the certificates that prove your history and, if you're leasehold, for a pack a third party controls. Budget for the leasehold pack up front and treat it as a fixed cost of selling a flat, not an unexpected bill. If you want the wider spending picture, our guide to the true cost of selling a house sets out fees, tax and everything in between.

When should you gather these documents?

Before you list. Not when a buyer appears, not when your solicitor chases you, before the property goes on the market. The delay between "offer accepted" and "keys handed over" in the UK still routinely runs to four or five months, and a large chunk of that is spent waiting on information that could have been ready on day one.

A sensible sequence:

1. Now: check your EPC is valid, locate your ID, and start a folder (physical or digital) for every certificate and guarantee you can find.
2. Before marketing: commission an EPC if you need one; if leasehold, order the LPE1 pack.
3. On instructing a solicitor: complete the TA6 and TA10 carefully and honestly.
4. Once under offer: hand everything over promptly so your solicitor can reply to enquiries without going back and forth with you.

If you're not sure whether you even need a solicitor for all this, the short answer is that you effectively do for the legal transfer. We explain why in do you need a solicitor to sell your house, and the wider sequence is set out in our conveyancing process guide.

What if you can't find the paperwork?

Don't panic, and don't lie on the TA6 to paper over the gap. There's almost always a route through:

• Lost title deeds: irrelevant if registered; your solicitor pulls the digital record.
• Missing building regs certificate: apply for a regularisation certificate from local building control, or use indemnity insurance.
• No FENSA certificate for old windows: check the FENSA online database first; if it's genuinely missing, indemnity insurance usually satisfies the lender.
• Lost EPC: download it free from the government register, or commission a new one.
• Guarantee from a firm that's gone bust: some are backed by an insurance scheme (like GPI) that survives the company; check the policy wording.

The mistake isn't having a gap. Every older home has one. The mistake is discovering it three weeks before completion, when a solved problem becomes an emergency.

How missing documents cost you the sale

Let me be blunt about why this matters, because "gather your paperwork" sounds like dull admin and it is anything but. Roughly a quarter of agreed UK sales collapse before completion, and a meaningful share of those deaths are caused by information problems, an enquiry that can't be answered, a certificate that can't be found, a leasehold pack that never arrives. Every week your buyer waits is a week their mortgage offer ages, their patience thins, and a rival property tempts them away.

Buyers read hesitation as risk. A seller who answers enquiries within days looks organised and trustworthy; a seller who goes quiet for a fortnight while hunting for a boiler certificate looks like someone hiding something. You control which of those you are, and the control is entirely in the preparation. This is the cheapest insurance in the whole transaction, and it costs you nothing but a rainy afternoon with a folder.

Do you still need all this if you sell to a cash buyer?

Mostly, yes, but the burden is lighter and the process faster. A reputable cash house-buying company still needs to verify your identity and confirm you have good legal title, so ID and the title register are non-negotiable. Because a genuine cash buyer isn't relying on a mortgage lender, they're often more relaxed about missing certificates, they can price the risk into their offer and proceed anyway, which is exactly why this route is popular for homes with paperwork gaps, short leases or non-standard construction.

You'll still complete a version of the property information forms, and honesty still protects you legally. But the leasehold-pack bottleneck and the lender's certificate demands, the two things that most often stall an open-market sale, carry far less weight when a cash buyer is on the other side. If speed and certainty are your priority, comparing a few genuine cash offers alongside the estate-agent route is the sensible move. You can compare offers and get a free valuation here to see what your options look like before you commit to months of open-market limbo.

Get the folder ready first. Everything after that is easier.