HM Land Registry requisitions fall 47.7% as regulator presses for better checks

What happened

HM Land Registry requisitions caused by avoidable errors fell substantially between 2022 and 2025, according to agency analysis reported on 15 October 2026. The number of individual points raised over missing, unclear or conflicting information dropped from 839,000 to 439,000. That represents 400,000 fewer points requiring attention, a reduction of 47.7%.

The improvement was not simply a result of changes in the number of applications, HM Land Registry said. After allowing for fluctuations in application volumes, the agency calculated that the avoidable requisition rate fell by 39.1%. It said the downward trend had continued into 2026, although the report did not give a comparable full-year figure.

HM Land Registry also put an estimated value on the reduced workload for conveyancers. Using published sector pay rates and assumptions about the staff time needed to deal with errors, it suggested the reduction saved the profession £12 million in 2025. This is an estimate of time-related costs avoided, not a reported reduction in legal bills paid by homebuyers.

A separate set of agency figures covered the six months from October 2025 to March 2026. In that period, HM Land Registry recorded 78,894 fully avoidable requisitions among 1.6 million applications, giving a rate of 4.9%. That application-based measure should not be confused with the annual count of individual requisition points: the two figures describe different aspects of the problem.

The background

HM Land Registry maintains the register of land and property ownership in England and Wales. A requisition is a request for further information or action needed to deal with a registration application. In the analysis described by Andrew Robertson, the agency’s head of customer policy, avoidable points included information that was absent, ambiguous or inconsistent.

For buyers, registration work sits in the post-completion stage of conveyancing, after the purchase has completed. Completion and registration are separate steps, so receiving the keys does not mean every legal administrative task has finished. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ focus on this stage concerns the work firms must still carry out for clients and mortgage lenders.

Registration queries are also distinct from investigations carried out before a buyer commits to a purchase. Matters such as flood risk, including the proposed Flood Performance Certificate trials in England, concern information about the property itself. A fall in avoidable registration errors does not remove the need for those earlier checks.

The same distinction applies to building-safety questions affecting flats. Proposed legal duties on building owners under the cladding remediation bill concern responsibility for addressing safety problems, rather than the accuracy of a registration submission. HM Land Registry’s figures measure avoidable queries in its application process, not whether properties have been cleared of other legal or physical concerns.

The agency had estimated in 2024 that requisitions could cost the conveyancing profession as much as £19 million a year. Its calculation put the indicative staff cost of dealing with each error at up to £31.42. Those figures explain the agency’s emphasis on reducing repeat work, but they do not establish a standard charge that a consumer should expect to see on a solicitor’s invoice.

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What people are saying

Writing in Today’s Conveyancer, Robertson attributed the improvement to several changes rather than one intervention. He identified more effective use of data, better checks before applications were submitted, and training and support aimed at particular problems. HM Land Registry also credited conveyancers, post-completion staff, industry bodies and its own caseworkers for their contribution.

The agency acknowledged that its own decisions could generate unnecessary work. Its internal checks found unnecessary requisitions in 12% of checked cases in 2022/23, compared with 10% in 2024/25 and 8% in 2025/26. Robertson said the results suggested that internal checking, guidance and learning were helping staff make more consistent decisions about when to raise a query.

Stephen Ward, deputy chief executive of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, welcomed the sector-wide reduction in avoidable requisitions. He said publication of the figures was helping firms identify effective practices and areas needing further improvement. Ward encouraged conveyancers to use the data, take up training and discuss problems with others in the profession so they could learn from one another.

The regulator nevertheless placed post-completion work among the issues highlighted in its Risk Agenda, published in the week of 15 October 2026. It said accurate applications were a central professional responsibility and warned of regulatory consequences for persistent failures. The reduction therefore sits alongside continued scrutiny, rather than a relaxation of the standards expected of the firms it regulates.

What happens next

HM Land Registry continues to offer free webinars, videos and learning materials through its training hub to help prevent common errors. Robertson’s explanation points to checks before submission as one of the practices behind the improvement. The available support gives firms a way to address recurring mistakes before those mistakes create another exchange with the agency.

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers said it would continue working with conveyancers to sustain progress and protect clients and mortgage lenders. That lender-protection role is separate from borrowing rules, including changes to the high loan-to-income mortgage cap for lenders. The registration figures concern the handling of legal applications, not whether a buyer qualifies for a particular mortgage.

For a buyer with an application still outstanding, the practical distinction is between the transaction having completed and the registration work having finished. Asking the conveyancer whether HM Land Registry has raised a query, and whether a response is outstanding, can help establish the position of that individual file. The national reduction does not reveal whether a particular application needs further information or action.

The reported analysis does not provide a new registration deadline, a measure of the overall application backlog or a quantified reduction in processing times. Nor does the £12 million estimate establish how much, if anything, individual clients saved. Further figures would be needed to show whether fewer avoidable queries translate into shorter registration waits or lower charges for consumers.

Why this matters

For buyers and remortgaging homeowners in England and Wales, the figures show fewer avoidable errors in a legal process that continues after completion. HM Land Registry’s estimated savings concern conveyancers’ staff time, not a promised discount on legal fees or a guaranteed registration date. The Council for Licensed Conveyancers’ warning also makes clear that post-completion work remains a professional obligation. Consumers with outstanding applications can ask their conveyancer whether any query still needs a response.