AP1 form: getting your name on the register after completion

The AP1 form at a glance

Get the form itself from HM Land Registry: Form AP1 on GOV.UK (version dated 7 October 2024). We explain it here; we do not reproduce it.

What will HM Land Registry charge to register your AP1?

The fee is not set by the form. It depends on what the AP1 registers. A purchase pays on the price. A transfer of equity or a gift pays on the value of the share. A remortgage pays on the loan. The calculator at the top of this page works out the fee for each case, and the Land Registry fee calculator has every band.

Fees by post are higher than online fees. HM Land Registry is consulting on simpler fixed fees in place of Scale 2 (open 27 October to 22 December 2026); no fee has changed yet.

What happens between completion and the register showing your name?

On completion day you get the keys, but the register still shows the seller. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, a transfer of a registered home does not take effect in law until it is registered. The AP1 is the application that closes that gap.

Before completion, your conveyancer runs an official search with priority (form OS1, or OS2 for part of a title, such as a new build plot). It gives 30 working days of protection: if the AP1 reaches HM Land Registry within that time, nobody else’s application can jump ahead of yours.

After completion, the AP1 goes in with:

• the signed transfer deed (usually a TR1)
• your lender’s mortgage deed, if you have a mortgage (panel 10 of the form)
• the tax certificate: in England, HMRC’s SDLT5 certificate or the submission receipt for the online return; in Wales, a Welsh Revenue Authority certificate. HM Land Registry cannot register a transfer that needs one without it
• proof the seller’s mortgage has been paid off (form DS1 or the lender’s electronic discharge)
• the fee

HM Land Registry says your rights are secured from the moment it receives the application, as long as the application is in order and can be registered.

When will the register show you as the owner?

HM Land Registry publishes its processing times each month. They depend on the type of application, so a straightforward purchase, a new build plot and a first registration sit in different queues. These are its figures for applications in July 2026, published 22 September 2026.

While you wait, you can live in the home. HM Land Registry says your rights are secured from when it receives the application, if the application is in order. The wait matters most if you want to sell, remortgage or transfer a share before the register is updated. If a delay would cause a real problem, such as putting a sale or remortgage at risk, you can ask HM Land Registry to speed up the application. It is free, and it says it deals with the vast majority within 10 working days.

What is a requisition, and why does HM Land Registry send one?

A requisition is a question or a request from HM Land Registry when something in the application is missing, wrong or unclear. The application waits until it is answered.

HM Land Registry’s practice guide gives the time to reply. The rule allows 20 working days, but for most applications it allows 60 working days. It normally sends a warning after 40 working days, and the conveyancer can ask for more time, usually another 20 working days. If there is no full reply and no extra time agreed, HM Land Registry can cancel the application.

The reasons it lists most often, in our words:

• a panel on the form left blank, or the wrong form used
• no tax certificate (HMRC’s SDLT5 certificate or the online return’s submission receipt, or the Welsh certificate), or no reason given for one not being needed
• a name that does not match between the deeds, or between a deed and the register
• a signature with no witness, or no proof of authority to sign
• a fee missing or too low
• no address for service for the new owner
• for joint owners, no clear statement of how you own the home together

HM Land Registry counts some of these as “avoidable”. In November 2025 it said the average avoidable requisition rate across its customers was 4.6%, and that it would publish each firm’s rate.

What you can do: give your full names exactly as on your passport, tell us about any change of name, and sign each deed with the witness physically present. If you are buying together, tell us early how you want to own the home: how joint owners can hold a home.

Which AP1 does your purchase need? What our quote requests show

Our quote form asks the questions that decide what goes in with the AP1. Of the 811 purchase quote requests we received (buying alone, or buying and selling), this is how they were answered (website quote requests, 2 Sep–29 Oct 2026; totals only).

Transfer of equity: what goes in with the AP1?

When owners are added or removed, the AP1 goes in with the transfer deed (TR1), signed by every current owner and, where it records how you will own the home, by every new owner too. Three things differ from a purchase.

• The fee. Where no money changes hands, HM Land Registry charges on Scale 2, on the value of the share transferred after taking off any mortgage that stays on the home or is registered at the same time. Where one owner pays the other, Scale 1 applies to the amount paid.
• The lender. If there is a mortgage, the lender has to agree. If the mortgage is replaced in the new names, the new mortgage deed goes in with the same AP1.
• Identity. Panels 12 to 14 must give identity details for everyone involved. Someone who has no conveyancer of their own has their identity checked on the ID1 identity check.

Tax on a transfer of equity is a separate question: work it out with our transfer of equity calculator. Our fee for this work: we give you a written, itemised quote before you instruct us. More on changing the owners of your home.

Can you send an AP1 yourself?

Yes. HM Land Registry’s guidance on completing the AP1 is written for people who are not conveyancers. The usual reason to send one yourself is a change of name after marriage or civil partnership. It is free. To change only your contact address, HM Land Registry uses a different form, COG1.

What its name-change guidance asks for:

• the title number and the council you pay council tax to (panels 1 and 2)
• “Change of name” and a fee of 0 in panel 4
• an official copy of your marriage or civil partnership certificate, which HM Land Registry sends back
• your signature and the date in panel 15

If you are changing your address at the same time, you also fill in panel 9 and give identity evidence. A copy of any other document you send must be certified, with the words “I certify this to be a true copy of the original”, signed and dated.

HM Land Registry deals only with the person named in panel 7 and will not correspond with anyone else on your behalf.

On a purchase, a remortgage or a transfer of equity, your conveyancer sends the AP1 for you.

Is the AP1 any different for a home in Wales?

The form is the same. HM Land Registry keeps one register for England and Wales and publishes a Welsh-language version of its checklist for these applications. The tax certificate is what changes. In Wales, the buyer’s conveyancer files a Land Transaction Tax return with the Welsh Revenue Authority within 30 days of the day after completion. The Authority’s certificate then goes with the AP1, in place of HMRC’s SDLT5 certificate or submission receipt. In England the Stamp Duty return is due within 14 days of completion. See the Land Transaction Tax calculator.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own land registers. This page does not cover them.

What do our fees cover for registering your purchase?

On a purchase, the Application for Registration is included in our fee for buying a residential property, with the preparation of the Stamp Duty forms. On a remortgage, our fee includes redeeming your existing loan; the HM Land Registry fee is separate. For a transfer of equity, we give you a written, itemised quote before you instruct us. Government fees are shown on their own, never in one total with our fees. More on buying a home with us.

What happens next

• Exchange and completion: what happens before the AP1
• Buying a house: the whole process with us
• Remortgage conveyancing
• More conveyancing forms, explained