Residential Property Sales: What the New TA6 Form Means for You

In response to the profession’s concerns that the previous TA6 was ‘difficult to use’, the new form has been updated to streamline information and clarify the sellers’ responsibilities.

The following ‘specific’ topics have now been removed:

• Council tax
• Asking price
• Tenure, ownership and charges
• Physical characteristics of the property
• Building safety
• Restrictive covenants
• Coastal erosion
• Accessibility
• Coalfield or mining area

Instead, there is a sharper focus on clarity.

Rather than requiring sellers to provide a definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to rigid legal questions, the new form allows more scope to respond with ‘not known’.

This should reduce the burden on sellers who previously expressed concerns about misrepresentation.

Whilst sellers must still complete the form to the best of their knowledge, there is greater flexibility where the ‘correct’ answer is genuinely unknown.

This should also encourage prudent buyers to carry out their own investigations.

Moreover, the questions added to the fifth edition to comply with material information guidance from the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT) have now been removed.

Whilst it remains the sellers’ responsibility to provide ‘material information’ about the property, this is now gathered by the agent at the point of marketing.

Finally, the new TA6 will be accompanied by clearer explanatory notes.

These are intended to be a helpful tool, rather than a hindrance, guiding non-practitioners through the form.

The Law Society’s President, Mark Evans, has stated that the primary objective is to help sellers “feel more confident filling it out”.