Guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19): useful information for conveyancers (PG80)

Information about pre-existing and new practice of particular relevance in the current circumstances (practice guide 80).

From:
HM Land Registry
Published
16 September 2020
Last updated
16 January 2023 — See all updates

This publication was withdrawn on

Information within this practice guide has now been consolidated into Execution of deeds (PG8) and Electronic signatures accepted by HM Land Registry (PG82).

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Practice guide 80: coronavirus (COVID-19): useful information for conveyancers

HTML

Details

This practice guide:

  • provides information about changes to HM Land Registry’s practice to facilitate conveyancing and registration following the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

  • identifies other practice guides containing information that may be of particular assistance in the current circumstances

  • gives brief details of legislation passed in response to the coronavirus outbreak and relevant to conveyancers

  • is aimed at conveyancers, and you should interpret references to ‘you’ accordingly.

We only provide factual information and impartial advice about our procedures. Read more about the advice we give.

Webinars

You can join our free webinars for advice on a range of land registration topics and how to prepare quality applications.

Email alerts

Subscribe to email alerts to receive the latest changes to our practice guides.

Updates to this page

Published 16 September 2020
Last updated 16 January 2023 + show all updates

  1. Section 2.6 has been removed and incorporated into practice guide 67: evidence of identity.

  2. Sections 1.2 Prescribed application forms and 2.8 Signing certificates and consents required by restrictions have been deleted as a result of amendments to our practice guides 19 and 82 published on 15 August 2022.

  3. Sections 1.1 and 2.6 have been deleted following the publication of practice guide 82: electronic signatures accepted by HM Land Registry, and the numbering has been amended accordingly.

  4. Section 4.3 has been amended following the extension of protection from forfeiture for business tenancies in Wales to 25 March 2022. Section 4.4 has been amended because of further changes made pursuant to the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 on the use of statutory demands and winding up petitions.

  5. A link to the accepted signatures guidance on the GOV.UK website has been added to section 1.1. Section 1.4 has been amended to remove statements of truth, which can be signed electronically; see section 3.2 of practice guide 73: statements of truth.

  6. Section 4.3 has been amended. The protections from forfeiture for non-payment of rent and recovery of rent for business tenancies have been extended to 25 March 2022 in England by the Business Tenancies (Protection from Forfeiture: Relevant Period) (Coronavirus) (England) (No. 2) Regulations 2021 and to 30 September 2021 in Wales by the Business Tenancies (Extension of Protection from Forfeiture etc) (Wales) (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Regulations 2021, both of which came into force on 30 June 2021.

  7. Update to section 2.2 to clarify amending panel 7 of form AP1 also applies to the equivalent panel in other primary application forms.

  8. Section 3.1 has been amended to clarify we calculate the application cancellation date from the date we issue the request for information (requisition).

  9. Section 4.1 has been amended. The automatic filing extension granted by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 for registration of charges with Companies House comes to an end for charges created after 4 April 2021.

  10. Section 4.3 has been amended. The protections from forfeiture for non-payment of rent and recovery of rent for business tenancies have been extended to 30 June 2021 by the Business Tenancies (Protection from Forfeiture: Relevant Period) (Coronavirus) (England) Regulations 2021 and the Business Tenancies (Extension of Protection from Forfeiture etc) (Wales) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021, both of which come into force on 31 March 2021.

  11. Section 3.1 has been amended to remove references to later expedited applications, guidance for which is now in section 2 of practice guide 50: requisition and cancellation procedures.

  12. Section 3.1 has been amended to reflect changes to requests for information (requisitions) sent from 11 January 2021.

  13. Section 4.3 has been amended. The protections from forfeiture for non-payment of rent and recovery of rent for business tenancies have been extended to 31 March 2021 by the Business Tenancies (Protection from Forfeiture: Relevant Period) (Coronavirus) (England) (No 3) Regulations 2020 and the Business Tenancies (Extension of Protection from Forfeiture etc) (Wales) (Coronavirus) (No 3) Regulations 2020, both of which come into force on 31 December 2020.

  14. Section 3.1 has been amended to give advance notice of the resumption from mid-November of our policy of cancelling applications with outstanding requisitions.

  15. Section 4, which deals with legislation, has been amended to say that this section is not intended to be comprehensive and that some of the temporary legislative measures are, or may be, subject to review and alteration from time to time.

  16. We have added a paragraph under heading 3.5 and a new heading for the section below, with subsequent renumbering.

  17. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page

Related content