Selling Property Without TA6 Form

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When you’re looking to sell your property, you have the option of completing a TA6 form, or a Property Information Form, where you’ll answer many questions about the home for buyers. It can be more challenging to sell a home without a TA6 form, but this guide shows how it will still be feasible to sell for a speedy and competitive offer.

1. What is a TA6 form for freehold or leasehold properties?
2. Information about your home when selling that might be included on a TA6 form
3. Who is responsible for answering property information form questions?
4. Why selling a home without a TA6 form can be more difficult
5. Four approaches to find a buyer for a property lacking a TA6 form
6. Frequently asked questions about selling a home without a TA6 form

What is a TA6 form for freehold or leasehold properties?

Whenever the owner of a leasehold or freehold flat, house or any other type of residential property wants to sell their home, one step they’ll usually take is filling out a Property Information Form, which is also known simply as a TA6 form.
This is essentially a questionnaire about your property that includes a long list of wide-ranging questions about many aspect of the home. Some of the topics covered on the form include whether there are any boundary complications with your property; disputes with neighbours; planning permission; insurance, environmental issues and more.
TA6 forms follow a standard template created by The Law Society, which has 14 individual sections with questions about a property. The form includes instructions for sellers to assist them in filling out the form.
But some homeowners opt against filling out a TA6 form when they are trying to sell their property, and this can be for one or more reasons.
It’s possible that there could a problem with the house, such as dry rot, that would have to be disclosed on the form and the owners fears that identifying this issue on the form may make it much harder to sell the property. Other sellers may be unaware of the importance of TA6 forms.
Whatever your reason for trying to sell your house or flat without a TA6 form, this guide alerts you to some of the additional hurdles that you may face in trying to secure a buyer.
But this guide also provides in-depth information about your options for still receiving a competitive and rapid offer from a buyer for your home, even without a TA6 form. For example, you could contact a quick home buying company like LDN Properties, which has decades of experience with buying problem houses and flats, such as those without a TA6 form.

Information about your home when selling that might be included on a TA6 form

When you’re attempting to find a buyer for your house or flat, there’s certain information that you will be asked to provide on the TA6 form, as the HomeOwners Alliance website notes.
If you decide to complete one of these forms when selling your property, there are 14 sections with questions about the home, seeking information that includes:

• Any alterations that you have made to the property since owning it
• Details on any flooding in the area where your home is located
• Complaints or disputes either present or past with neighbours and others
• Information on shared uses or other rights of access at the property
• Your home’s Energy Performance Certificate rating
• Whether you have taken out insurance on your flat or house
• Explaining the specific legal boundaries of the property
• Identifying who currently provides power and other utilities to the home

Who is responsible for answering property information form questions?

As noted on The Law Society’s website, the responsibility for answering all of the questions across the 14 sections of a TA6 form rests with the homeowner, and the information is designed to inform buyers who may be considering making an offer.
Because you own and live in the flat or house that you’re attempting to sell, you’re in the best position to have all of the information necessary to answer the questions on the form to the fullest extent possible – if you ultimately choose to provide responses to those queries.
It’s not the duty of a third party, like an auctioneer or an estate agent, to complete the TA6 form for a homeowner, because the burden is on the latter to answer the many varied questions.
But it’s also useful to know that there is no statutory or regulatory requirement that you must complete a TA6 form before selling your home, and the next section of this guide elaborates on reasons why a homeowner may want to try finding a buyer without completing the form.

Why selling a home without a TA6 form can be more difficult

If you are the owner of a property that you are looking to sell, it’s not a legal mandate to fill out a TA6 form but it can complicate your efforts to find a buyer.
There are many situations in which a homeowner does not want to fill out a TA6 form because they do not want to bring prospective buyers’ attention to a flaw with the property, for example if it has high levels of radon, faulty wiring, subsidence, damp issues or other problems.
Sellers might fear that once potential buyers are made aware of the negative aspect of the flat or house that they will completely lose interest in making an offer on the property. This is a valid concern, but it’s always advised to be as honest and open with buyers as you can.
Because of the many questions that are included on a TA6 form, it can take a very long time and significant effort on the part of homeowners to complete it to a satisfactory level, as the website GetAgent notes. It’s feasible that some sellers could see the prospect of filling out a TA6 form as too daunting and therefore they will attempt to sell the home within filling out the form.
Just beware that prospective buyers are likely to be more suspicious about a property where the owner is selling without a TA6 form compared to a home where the form has been completed. That’s because these buyers will likely have concerns that the homeowner is trying to hide some negative aspect of the property that they’d have to deal with as the next owner.
If there is a potential negative issue with your home and that’s the reason you don’t want to fill out a TA6 form, you might worry that you’ll never be able to sell the property. There’s no need to have this fear, because there are still options available to attract a speedy and fair offer.
As the next section of this guide explains in greater detail, one such possibility is getting in touch with LDN Properties or any other legitimate quick home buyer. These businesses are renowned for making competitive and fast offers to purchase all types of properties, even when there’s a complication such as the lack of a TA6 form.

Four approaches to find a buyer for a property lacking a TA6 form

One of the most important choices that you’ll make as a homeowner trying to sell your property is which method you want to use for finding a potential buyer. The choices are usually selling to a quick home buyer, selling with an estate agent, selling at an auction or selling without any help, and there are pros and cons associated with these four options.
For example, if you sell your property to a no-fee quick home buyer then you can keep your expenses low whilst being assured of receiving the full sale proceeds. But if you decide to sell your home without any third party assistance, the process could take more than a full year.
It can be useful to make a note of your priorities with the sale of your house or flat, including your goal selling price, your willingness to pay any commission when selling and how long you can wait before receiving a serious offer. Then you should compare these details against the specifics of the four approaches below to identify the closest match to your needs.

Selling to a quick home buyer

Often the fastest way to sell any type of house or flat is by contacting a quick home buyer. These companies, such as LDN Properties which launched in 2003, have the funds available to buy homes immediately – they don’t have to wait for many weeks or months to first get approval for a mortgage that would pay for the purchase of the property.
This advantage means that quick home buyers can typically finalise the process of buying a home within a few short weeks, and that covers the important steps of exchanging contracts and paying the homeowner the full proceeds. That compares very favourably to the other three approaches to selling, all of which can take several months and sometimes even a full year.
Yet another perk of selling to a quick home buyer is that the legitimate companies will never ask you to pay any commission when they’re purchasing your flat or house, which reduces your expenses. That’s a welcome difference to estate agents or auctioneers, because they require that you pay commission and this will be deducted straight away from the sale proceeds if they are able to find a buyer for the property, and therefore your overall costs will rise.
Quick home buyers are also well known as a great choice for potential problem properties have a physical flaw, legal issue or some other aspect that other buyers might consider to be a dealbreaker – and that includes homes that the owner wants to sell without a TA6 form.
LDN Properties, by way of example, makes fast and fair offers to buy almost any age, condition, location, shape, size or type of home. The long list of purchases it has made since launching includes not only properties sold without a TA6 form but also new build flats, rental homes, houses with legal problems, uninhabitable properties, homes that do not have a Fenestration Self-Assessment Scheme certificate, flats with squatters and many other situations.
To help you find the right quick buyer for your home, it’s a good idea to ask individual companies if they can prove they are members of an independent organisation known as The Property Ombudsman (TPO). This entity writes rules, which all true members must follow, that aim to protect homeowners from falling victim to fraud in the quick buying industry.
You can check the membership status of any quick buyer simply by visiting TPO’s website, then clicking on the tab Find a Member on the left side of the welcome page, and then when prompted typing in the name of a specific company. If, like LDN Properties, they are genuinely registered with TPO then you will be shown their complete registration details. Don’t sell your home to a quick buyer that can’t prove it’s a TPO member, because it may be a scam.

Selling with an estate agent

There won’t be much work for you to do if you choose to sell your home without a TA6 form using the services of an estate agent, and this can reduce your stress.
The estate agent will take on the duty of producing a listing that includes photographs of your home’s interior and exterior and describes its main features, and then advertise this online, in their office and in local newspapers. They’ll then schedule viewings to take anyone interested around the property, and hear offers from buyers, ideally taking one to exchange of contracts.
For putting in all of this effort, estate agents usually charge commission on the successful sale of a home in a range between 1.15 percent and 1.40 percent of the selling price. This will raise your expenses because the fee will be deducted right away from the eventual proceeds. If you’re looking to save money when selling, you may want to consider no-fee alternatives.
Selling with an estate agent is not the swiftest of the options, because it could take over a year before you get a genuine offer. And even then, the prospective buyer can make the sale fall through by rescinding the offer, and they can do this without penalty so long as the contracts haven’t yet been exchanged. This would add a significant amount of extra time to your selling schedule because you will need to begin again with attempting to find a buyer.
Some estate agents may also try to get you to sell using their services by quoting an inflated sale price for your house or flat, even if they secretly know it’ll only sell at a lower value. They do this to try and secure your sale, because they’ll profit from the commission if they find a buyer.
It’s thankfully fairly simple, free and speedy to overcome this trick – start by visiting property sales websites and writing down the current and past sale prices of homes without TA6 forms. Then ask many estate agents for free quotes about your home’s possible sale price. Finally, calculate the average of all these prices to get a much more accurate estimate of the possible value at which you might be able to sell your property, even without a TA6 form.
Note also that some estate agents might not be experienced with selling a home that does not have a TA6 form, and this indicates that they could find it hard to known how to get buyers interested in your property. You should check with specific estate agents about their experience with selling such homes, and avoid using those that say they have never done so.

Selling at an auction

Property auctions are unpredictable, because you’ll pick a reserve price – the lowest price at which you can accept selling your flat or house – and then people will place bids of ever-increasing value on the home. If you receive no bids at the reserve price or higher, then your property doesn’t sell, and you’ll have to begin again with trying to find a buyer.
If you get just a single bid at the reserve price this is considered a legally binding agreement to sell your home to the bidder, and they can sue to enforce it if you try to cancel the sale after the auction. That’s why you must pick a reserve price that has the potential for generating some profit for you from the sale, even after you have paid the auctioneer their fees.
Auctioneers usually charge commission at 2.5 percent of a successfully sold property’s price, and this fee is deducted immediately from the final proceeds, adding to your costs.
This can be another slow option for selling a home, whether it has a TA6 form or not, because of the waiting involved. There’s a pause of many weeks or even months from the day that you choose to sell your home this way and the day that the auction is held. And then if your home does sell, the auctioneer usually gives the winning top bidder about a month to complete all of their mandatory tasks to finalise the purchase, such as signing various legal documents.

Selling without any help

This method of selling puts a lot of burden on the homeowner, because they’ll need to handle every step from the initial creation and marketing of a listing through to organising viewings and ultimately hearing offers from buyers and overseeing one to the exchange of contracts.
It’s a significant undertaking and could require a lot of your time, whilst also going on for more than a full year before you get a serious offer. Remember also that someone could make a genuine offer but then change their mind and rescind it, making the sale fall apart. Buyers can do this and not face any consequences so long as contracts aren’t yet exchanged. This would delay the sale of your home even longer, as you’d have to start over with seeking a buyer.
Selling without any assistance is only suggested if you have a friend or family member who is an expert at selling properties with a TA6 form and they are willing to help you out for free, or if you have suitable experience and are confident that you’ll be able to find a buyer fast.
The only obvious advantage of selling solo is that you will not be required to pay any commission to an auctioneer or estate agent, which lowers your expenses. But the money you have to spend on all the other steps of selling your home could wipe out this saving.
Instead, think about contacting LDN Properties or another no-fee quick home buyer, because they’ll not only ensure that you don’t pay any commission when selling your flat or house, but you’ll also get the additional bonus of completing the sale within a few short weeks. It’s a no-hassle, straightforward and zero-stress alternative to attempting to sell without any help.

Top queries and answers about selling without a TA6 form

Homeowners thinking of selling their house or flat quickly may have some questions to ask, ranging from the condition of the property, through to the information required to sell their home. Here are a few questions we’re asked when selling property without a TA6 form: