Who can verify your identity for a Land Registry application if you have no conveyancer
HM Land Registry updated its guide on Monday to confirm that the person signing form ID3 must be practising in an authorised profession, and that it may ask for proof.
Anyone buying, selling or mortgaging property without a conveyancer may need form ID3, and HM Land Registry has made clearer who can sign it. An update to its identity guide on Monday confirms that the verifier must be practising in one of the listed professions, and that the registry may ask for evidence that they are.
Someone who is retired, no longer holds the necessary regulatory approval or does not hold a required practising certificate cannot complete the form.
The list of six authorised professions has not changed:
- medical doctor
- dentist
- chartered or certified accountant
- regulated financial adviser
- Member of Parliament
- Member of the Senedd
Conditions for you and the verifier
None of these conditions is new. Part 1 of the form is completed by the person who has no legal representative, and Part 2 by the verifier. Each person without one needs a separate form, and so does the person lodging the application if that is someone different.
You and the verifier must have known each other for at least one year, and you must not be related in any way. Neither of you can be involved in the same transaction, so a doctor who is selling you the house cannot verify your identity.
Both of you must hold a current, valid full passport from the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, and each must supply a copy of the page with your personal details. A verifier checking more than one person has to supply a separate copy for each, because one copy for all is not accepted.
The form must be no more than 3 months old when it is lodged. Completed forms go to the HM Land Registry Citizen Centre, at the address given under standard addresses on its applications page.
If you cannot meet the conditions
If either of you lacks one of those passports, form ID3 cannot be used. Identity then has to be verified on form ID1, which is completed by a conveyancer.
If a conveyancer sends in the application and you had no representative, they must either say they are satisfied enough has been done to verify you, supply evidence of identity, or state an exemption.
The checks exist to reduce the risk of registration fraud. The registry's guide is written mainly for solicitors and other conveyancers, and it warns that it uses legal terms.
