Documents you need to sell a house

Always required

• Energy Performance Certificate. Must be commissioned before marketing and the rating shown in the advert. Check the official register first — yours may still be valid.
• Proof of identity and address. Photo ID plus a recent utility bill or bank statement, for your conveyancer's anti-money-laundering checks.
• Title register and title plan. Downloadable from HM Land Registry for a small fee if the property is registered; original deeds if it is not.
• Property Information Form (TA6 in England and Wales). Covers boundaries, disputes, alterations, services, rights of way and known issues.
• Fittings and Contents Form (TA10). Lists exactly what stays and what goes, room by room.
• Mortgage redemption statement, if there is a mortgage to repay on completion.

Work done to the property

Anything structural or regulated needs its paperwork. Missing building regulations sign-off is one of the most common reasons a sale stalls — and it can usually be resolved with indemnity insurance or a regularisation application, but only if you find out early.

• Planning permission and building regulations completion certificates for extensions, loft conversions, removed walls, garage conversions and conservatories where required.
• FENSA or CERTASS certificates for replacement windows and doors fitted since April 2002.
• Gas Safe certificates for boiler installation and recent servicing records.
• Electrical installation certificate (Part P) for rewiring or new circuits.
• Damp-proof course, timber treatment, cavity wall insulation and underpinning guarantees, with the transferable warranty documents.
• NHBC or equivalent structural warranty for a newer home.
• Solar panel documentation, including any lease or feed-in tariff arrangement.
• Septic tank or private drainage details and compliance with general binding rules.

Leasehold and shared-ownership extras

• The lease itself, with any deeds of variation.
• Leasehold Information Form (TA7) and Commonhold Information Form where relevant.
• Management information pack from the freeholder or managing agent — usually a paid-for pack, and often the slowest item in the whole sale, so order it early.
• Service charge and ground rent statements for the last three years.
• Buildings insurance schedule for the block.
• Details of any planned major works and the anticipated cost to your flat.
• Fire safety information for flats in buildings where it applies, including any EWS1 form.
• For shared ownership, the shared ownership lease and the housing association's resale process.

Useful but optional

• Recent utility bills and council tax statement — buyers ask about running costs.
• Broadband speed evidence.
• Appliance manuals and warranties.
• Boiler service history.
• Any previous survey or valuation report.
• Parking permit or allocated space documentation.

Nation-specific requirements

In Scotland you must have a Home Report before the property is put on the market. It contains a single survey and valuation by a chartered surveyor, an energy report and a property questionnaire completed by you.

In Northern Ireland the process is solicitor-led and the standard forms differ from the English and Welsh TA series, but the underlying evidence — title, consents, guarantees, EPC — is the same.

Across the UK, material information rules mean facts such as tenure, council tax band, price, and known issues affecting the property should be available to buyers up front rather than discovered later.

Where to get missing documents

• Title register and plan: HM Land Registry's online service.
• EPC: the official Find an energy certificate register, or a new assessment from an accredited domestic energy assessor.
• Planning and building control records: your local council's planning portal or building control department.
• FENSA certificates: the FENSA online certificate search.
• Gas and electrical certificates: the installer, or the relevant competent-person scheme register.
• Leasehold pack: the freeholder or managing agent, ordered through your conveyancer.