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When a purchase completes, a bundle of documents arrives from your conveyancer, and most of them look like they can be filed and forgotten. A few of them are the ones you will be asked for in two or ten years' time. This article covers which ones, what each is for, and how to store them so they can be found.
The stamp duty documents
Stamp duty land tax is paid by sending HMRC a return and the tax, normally through your conveyancer. GOV.UK says both are due within 14 days of the effective date of the transaction. Two items come back from that process.
The SDLT5 certificate. GOV.UK describes this as proof that you sent the return. Online filers receive it electronically and paper filers receive it after HMRC processes the SDLT1. It is not a receipt for a particular amount, so it does not replace the completion statement showing what you paid, but it is the document that shows the return was filed.
The UTRN. Each return has a Unique Transaction Reference Number. GOV.UK advises saving a copy of the certificate and keeping a record of the UTRN for every transaction. The page does not state how long to keep them, so treat the retention period as open-ended while you own the property and for some time after you sell.
The certificate also has a job to do straight away. GOV.UK says it goes to HM Land Registry with the application to register the property in your name. Solicitors and legal conveyancers send it online; if you are not represented, it is posted. It is worth asking your conveyancer to confirm when the registration application was sent, and to send you a copy of the certificate with the other completion documents.
Why a refund can depend on them
A common case is buying a new main home before the old one has sold. If you pay the higher rates on the new purchase, GOV.UK says you can apply for a refund of the higher-rate part if you sell or give away your previous main home within 3 years of buying the new one. For sales on or after 29 October 2018, the refund must be claimed within 12 months of whichever is later: the sale of the previous home or the filing date of the SDLT return for the new one.
Two dates matter here, and both are on documents you will have been given: the filing date on the new return and the completion date of the sale. If the paperwork cannot be found, getting copies means going back to the conveyancer who acted, which is slower than opening a file you already hold.
A diary note is a simple safeguard. Put the three-year date and the twelve-month claim date in a calendar the day you complete.
Why a later sale can depend on them
Capital Gains Tax can apply when you sell a property that is not your main home, such as a second property or a buy-to-let, and it is worked out on the gain. GOV.UK says you can deduct the costs of buying, selling or improving the property from the gain, including estate agents' and solicitors' fees and the cost of improvement works. Ordinary maintenance such as decorating does not count.
On its record-keeping page, HMRC lists what to hold on to for a property: the price you paid, costs such as professional fees and Stamp Duty, improvement costs, the purchase contract from your solicitor and any valuations. The same page says to keep records for at least a year after the Self Assessment deadline for the return the gain is reported on, and longer if you filed late or HMRC has started a check. Because the sale may be many years after the purchase, the practical effect is that the purchase papers need to last for as long as you own the property.
Which costs can be deducted in a particular case is a question for an accountant if a sale is approaching, but you can only claim what you can show you paid.
If records have gone missing by the time a sale is reported, HMRC's guidance is to try to recreate them, and to mark any recreated figure as estimated or provisional on the tax return. That is a fallback, and it is easier to defend a figure backed by a certificate and a completion statement than one rebuilt from memory.
What to keep
- The SDLT5 certificate and a note of the UTRN
- The completion statement showing the price and the money paid
- The signed contract and the transfer deed
- Invoices for conveyancing, surveys and any valuation
- Receipts for improvements, such as an extension or a new kitchen
- Your Land Registry registration confirmation and title documents
Keep originals of anything signed, and keep a scanned copy of everything.
Storing them so they can be found
Paper first. A Ad document box with a lid and a lock keeps the originals in one place. An Ad expanding file with labelled sections lets you separate the purchase, the improvements and the insurance and utilities papers. Use Ad archive box files for the larger deed bundles, and put the year of purchase on the spine.
For scans, a Ad flatbed or sheet-fed document scanner is quicker than photographing pages and gives you readable text. A phone photograph of a certificate is better than nothing, but folds and shadows make fine print hard to read later.
Keep scans in more than one place. A Ad portable external hard drive kept somewhere other than your house gives a second copy that survives a fire or a flood, while a cloud folder gives a third. Name the files so that a stranger could read them: "SDLT5 certificate 12 Example Road 2026" is more useful than "scan0012".
Finally, Ad a plastic wallet folder for the ones you handle often, such as the certificate and the insurance schedule, saves going through the archive every time someone asks for a copy.