For sellers in England & Wales
Sell it once.
Most sellers first hear about the paperwork after they’ve accepted an offer. By then every answer starts another month of waiting — and waiting is what breaks sales.
Free, takes a minute, and we don’t ask for your email to see the result.
Start the management pack today. Nothing else on your list takes as long, and it lands about when you’d be accepting an offer.
- Leasehold management packRequested from the managing agent — outside your control4–10 weeks
- Building regs completionExtension recorded on the energy certificate2–6 weeks
- FENSA certificateGlazing recorded as installed after 2002Days, ~£25
- Boiler building regsMains gas — notification for a post-2005 installDays
- Article 4 directionPermitted development rights removed in this areaAsk first
- + 2 more
23%
of listings suffer at least one fall-throughTwentyCi, Q2 2026
27%
of failures happen at survey stage, where price gets renegotiatedQuick Move Now, Q2 2026
£2,727
average cost to a seller when a sale collapsesHomeOwners Alliance
We won’t claim preparation prevents all of that — most collapses are refused mortgages and bad surveys, not paperwork. What it does is shorten the transaction, and almost everything that goes wrong gets likelier the longer yours runs.
The mechanism
How it actually goes wrong
Consistent, boring, and it catches almost everyone.
You list, and wait
Eight weeks pass with nothing to do. This is the time you will later wish you had used.
An offer comes in
You accept it, and instruct a conveyancer. The clock starts now, not eight weeks ago.
The enquiries begin
As a list you have never been shown before.
Building regulations sign-off for the loft? FENSA certificate for the windows? Septic tank compliance? Where is the leasehold management pack?
Every answer starts a new wait
You have none of it, and nobody warned you. Chase a council. Chase a managing agent. Book an engineer. Each one is weeks, and they start one at a time.
The survey lands mid-delay
It raises questions of its own. Now the buyer has leverage, and you are four months in and tired.
Someone gives up
Or a mortgage offer expires. Everyone’s money is gone, and you start again.
An example
The kind of thing you cannot find for free
Say you have a loft conversion and no Building Regulations completion certificate for it. Your instinct — and the free advice you’ll find online — is to ring the council and ask.
Doing that can destroy the indemnity insurance option entirely. Insurers require that neither side has contacted the local authority about the irregularity, and policies exclude claims where the insured started that conversation. A £35 policy covering five figures of exposure disappears because you were being helpful. It is normally arranged by the buyer’s solicitor close to exchange — so you would never see the mechanism that just cost you.
What we’d tell you
This is likely to come up. Do not contact the council before you speak to your conveyancer — it can remove an option you will want. Here is what the options usually are, and roughly what each costs.
That is the whole product in one example: something you cannot get from a free checklist, given to you while you can still act on it, without anyone telling you what to decide.
Why pay for this
Free checklists exist. They are not the same thing.
A free seller checklist
- The same list for every property in the country
- Tells you a document exists, not whether you need it
- No idea what is already on record about your house
- Silent on the traps that cost you money
- No sense of what to start first
Prepared Seller
- Built from the public record for your address
- Reads your energy certificate: age, extensions, glazing, heating
- Cross-checks planning constraints — listed, conservation, Article 4
- Names the traps, like the indemnity mistake above
- Ordered by lead time, so the slow things start today
Free to read
The questions, answered in plain English
You don’t have to buy anything to be better prepared than you were. These are the things that come up most, written out properly.
- The council call that voids your indemnity insuranceUsually no — not before you have spoken to your conveyancer. Indemnity insurers require that neither side has raised the irregularity with the local authority, so asking can remove an option worth five figures for a £30–£50 policy.2–6 weeks for council records
- Loft conversions and building regsExpect to be asked for the Building Regulations completion certificate, and for planning permission if the roofline changed. A converted loft without sign-off is one of the most common reasons a sale slows at enquiry stage.2–6 weeks from the council
- Leasehold management packs (LPE1)Several weeks is common, and it is largely outside your control — the managing agent sets the pace. For most flat sales it is the single longest item, which is why it is worth requesting before you list rather than after you accept an offer.Commonly several weeks
- Septic tanks and the 2020 rulesIf your septic tank discharges to a watercourse it should have been replaced or upgraded by January 2020. Buyers' solicitors ask for evidence of what you have, where it discharges, and how it is maintained — and if work is needed it can take months.Days to check, months if work is needed
- FENSA certificates for windowsReplacement windows fitted in England and Wales from April 2002 normally need building regulations compliance, usually evidenced by a FENSA or CERTASS certificate. You can look yours up online in minutes, and a replacement copy is around £25.Minutes to look up
- Boiler paperwork when sellingNo. A gas safety certificate is a landlord's legal duty, not a seller's, and this is one of the most common misunderstandings in a house sale. What does get asked for is building regulations compliance for a boiler installed since April 2005.Days to two weeks
Questions
Before you ask
Do I really need all this before I list?
No — but the questions arrive whether you are ready or not, and the slow ones are slow whenever you start them. A leasehold management pack takes weeks regardless. Starting it before you list means it arrives around the time you accept an offer, rather than adding weeks after.
Is this legal advice?
No. We tell you what is likely to be asked, where each document comes from and roughly what it costs. What any of it means for your sale is a question for your conveyancer, and you will still need one.
How is this different from a free checklist?
A checklist is the same for everyone. We read the public record for your specific address — the energy certificate, planning constraints, what is recorded about extensions and glazing — and tell you which questions your property will turn on. And we flag the traps, like the fact that ringing the council about a missing building regs certificate can destroy your indemnity insurance option.
Which parts of the country do you cover?
England and Wales. Scotland has the Home Report system and works differently enough that we would rather say so than guess. Northern Ireland is not covered yet either.
Find out what they’ll ask about your house
Your postcode and house number. We read the public record and show you which questions your sale is likely to turn on — and which take longest to answer.
Free. England and Wales. No email needed to see your result.