What you’ll learn
By the end of this step, you should be able to:
- Explain who normally handles the SDLT return, payment and Land Registry application.
- Check that post-completion legal work is progressing and retain the resulting records.
The decision this lesson prepares you for: Has the SDLT return and Land Registry application actually been filed on your behalf?
After completion, two legal tasks finish the transfer — and your conveyancer performs both with money and authority you already gave them. Your role is lighter but real: confirm each happened, keep the paperwork, and ignore the small industry of scam letters that targets new homeowners in their first months.
The SDLT return
Any stamp duty must be reported and paid to HMRC within 14 days of completion — even a £0 first-time buyer return usually must be filed. Your conveyancer files it and pays from the funds collected at completion (itemised on your completion statement). Ask for confirmation the return went in; the certificate reference belongs in your purchase folder.
HM Land Registry registration
Your conveyancer applies to HM Land Registry to record you as owner and your lender's charge. Registration is backdated to your application, so the queue — weeks to many months — does not endanger your ownership. When it completes you receive the updated title; check your name, the address and the price are right, then store it with the report on title. You can view your entry on the Land Registry service anytime for a few pounds.
Paperwork and predators
Keep permanently: the completion statement, SDLT certificate, title documents, report on title, mortgage offer, survey, guarantees, and the TA6/TA10. New owners' addresses are public once registered, and letters follow offering 'official title deed copies' for £50–£90 or inventing registration fees — the Land Registry sells the real thing for a few pounds, and anything demanding payment gets one response: ask your conveyancer first.
Your action list
Official sources
Practical tips
- Scan the whole purchase folder to cloud storage — several documents will be requested when you eventually remortgage or sell.
- The completion statement is also your record of what SDLT was paid — useful years later if rules or rebates change.
What can go wrong
- The 14-day SDLT window is HMRC's, with penalties — confirmation, not assumption, is the standard.
- Official-looking letters with payment demands in your first six months are overwhelmingly scams; the real bodies already got paid via your conveyancer.
- PropertySquares provides education, not financial or legal advice. Verify current rules and obtain advice for your circumstances before acting.
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