The Hound of Holborn: The New Property Information Form (TA6 6th Edition) – A Leaner Form, But No Less Dangerous
Conveyancers are not, by nature, excitable creatures. Yet every few years, the Law Society hands down a new form and the profession collectively pricks up its ears. The latest to emerge from Chancery Lane is the TA6 Property Information Form (6th edition) — now officially launched, with mandatory use from 30 March 2026 for all Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) firms.
This arrives just as the UK Government opens a sector-wide Home Buying and Selling Reform Consultation (running from 6 October to 29 December 2025), which seeks to improve speed, transparency and consumer confidence in property transactions. The timing is no accident: policymakers and practitioners are finally singing from the same hymn sheet.
A Trimmed-Down Beast
The 6th edition replaces both the 4th and 5th editions of the TA6. Where its predecessor sprawled across 25 sections, the new form boasts a tidy 15. Gone are the chapters on council tax, asking price, tenure and ownership, restrictive covenants, building safety, coastal erosion, accessibility and coalfields.
This paring down follows extensive consultation and a round of user testing more rigorous than many property chains. The Law Society’s message is clear: fewer questions, fewer complaints, fewer opportunities for chaos.
The tone of questioning has changed too. Sellers are now invited to state whether they are “aware of” something, rather than to give a definitive yes or no. In practice, “no” now means “not known,” and “not known” means precisely what it says. There’s also explicit encouragement for sellers to tick “not known” when appropriate. It is, apparently, the age of reasonable uncertainty.
The explanatory notes, newly rewritten, echo this theme. They remind sellers that they need only answer “to the best of their knowledge,” that they’re not expected to possess legal or technical expertise, and that honesty is a better defence than optimism. The seller’s solicitor, the notes stress, bears no liability for the factual accuracy of what the client provides — a welcome clarification, if not exactly a comfort.
A Return to Sanity — or to Ambiguity?
In fairness, many will welcome the overhaul. The 5th edition had become a patchwork of good intentions: attempts to align with National Trading Standards (NTSELAT) “material information” guidance, a detour into building safety questions that overlapped with the Building Safety Act 2022, and layers of duplication between the TA6, TA7, and lender questionnaires. The new form strips that all away.
But simplification cuts both ways. The fewer questions you ask, the more interpretation you invite. “Are you aware of any dispute?” sounds straightforward until the seller recalls that they once exchanged frosty words with a neighbour about wheelie bins. Does that count?
The new approach encourages discretion — and with discretion comes risk. The Law Society is at pains to say that no new liabilities are created by the 6th edition. Yet the very act of replacing concrete questions with awareness-based ones invites subjectivity. If there’s a future claim for misrepresentation, the battleground will not be what the form asked, but what the seller “ought reasonably to have known.”
Environmental, Practical, and Everyday Risks
The new explanatory notes are worth their weight in indemnity insurance. They devote detailed commentary to boundaries, disputes, alterations, guarantees, insurance, environmental matters, rights of way, and informal arrangements.
Environmental issues, in particular, receive more attention than before. Flooding, radon, and Japanese knotweed are no longer treated as eccentric countryside topics but as standard urban risks. The notes even hint that where sellers are uncertain, they may wish to consider obtaining their own searches or professional advice — a subtle way of nudging the burden back toward diligence.
Similarly, the notes spell out that if works were done without consent or building control approval, sellers should disclose the fact and provide any documents they have. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach of old will no longer do.
Even mundane topics such as shared services, parking arrangements, and informal rights come with quiet warnings. A garden gate used for twenty years without deeded right of way may be fine — until it isn’t.
Timing and Transition
The implementation timetable deserves its own red circle in every firm’s diary:
- 13 October 2025: TA6 (6th edition) available to licensed suppliers.
- 13 January 2026: General availability for law firms.
- 30 March 2026: Mandatory for all CQS firms.
- After 30 March 2026: The 4th and 5th editions are officially withdrawn, though existing transactions may still rely on them where issued earlier.
During the transition period, there will be a predictable rash of mismatched forms — sellers on the new version, buyers demanding the old, and everyone else frantically cross-referencing explanatory notes to find out who’s right.
For firms, the practical work begins now:
- Updating precedents, client guides and report templates.
- Training staff on the subtle shift from “yes/no” to “are you aware.”
- Testing internal systems for compatibility with supplier versions.
- Reviewing retainer letters to reflect that clients’ replies are their own responsibility.
Those who wait until March will spend Easter writing disclaimers.
The Solicitor’s Tightrope
If the 5th edition risked overwhelming clients with detail, the 6th risks something subtler: under-disclosure through ambiguity. Sellers will increasingly turn to their solicitors for guidance on what “awareness” means — and solicitors will, rightly, be cautious in reply.
Documenting advice will be critical. When a client says “I’m not aware of any issues,” the prudent practitioner should confirm in writing that this includes (or excludes) certain matters discussed. The explanatory notes make clear that sellers must check “what they reasonably can” — but “reasonable” remains the slipperiest word in the English legal lexicon.
And although the Law Society insists no new liability arises from the new form, practitioners know better: negligence claims are born not of new duties but of fresh misunderstandings.
The Buyer’s View: Still Caveat Emptor
For buyers, the message is equally plain. The notes state that the TA6 is a disclosure document, not a due diligence substitute. A “not known” answer is not a warranty; it is an invitation to investigate.
Buyers’ solicitors should resist the temptation to treat a clean TA6 as gospel. Instead, they should follow up where responses seem evasive, or where other documents (survey, title, replies to enquiries) suggest a disconnect.
In this respect, the 6th edition subtly reinforces the traditional balance of English conveyancing: the seller discloses in good faith, the buyer verifies independently, and the solicitor tries to ensure neither side sues them.
The Hound’s Verdict
So, does the new TA6 mark the dawn of a more civilised conveyancing age? Possibly. It’s shorter, clearer, and less prescriptive. It gives clients breathing room and lawyers fewer boxes to tick.
But like every simplification, it conceals its own complexity. “Are you aware” may sound gentler than “Do you know,” yet it invites the same disputes — just later, when the paint’s dry and the buyers are no longer speaking to anyone.
In the end, the form may be leaner, but the professional vigilance it demands is not. Or, as one might put it: the form may be shorter, but the emails about it won’t be.
