Checking property descriptions across documents before a conveyancing deed completes

The property description is one of the most reliable sources of trouble in a conveyancing file. A typical transaction contains the existing title, the contract of sale, the transfer deed, and one or more plans or land registry documents. None of these necessarily use identical wording, and those wording differences are exactly where errors accumulate — errors that surface at the worst possible moment if they are not caught before the deed completes.

Before looking for discrepancies, establish which documents describe the property and which one you are treating as the authoritative reference. Not everything in the file carries equal weight: the registered title takes precedence over the contract; an official plan takes precedence over a description written from memory in a letter or attendance note. Setting that hierarchy before you start saves time and ensures any corrections are directed at the right document.

Fields to cross-check in every transaction

Not every part of the property description carries the same level of risk. These are the ones to verify without exception:

Title number. This is the property's unique identifier at the land registry. If it does not match across all documents, everything else in the review becomes unreliable. Start here.

Area in square metres. Discrepancies usually arise because an alteration — an extension, a subdivision, an amalgamation — was carried out at some point and not all documents reflect the updated area. A small difference may or may not be material depending on what the deed states, but it needs an explanation either way.

Registered address. This is the address as it appears on the register, which may differ from the address the client uses day to day. Street renaming, building renumbering by the local authority, and abbreviated street types are the most common sources of mismatch. What matters is that the address in the deed matches the title.

Boundary description. In older titles, boundaries are described by reference to neighbouring owners or physical features that may no longer exist. The task here is not to modernise the wording: it is to confirm that the boundary description in the draft deed is consistent with the existing title. Where the wording differs, you need a documented reason.

Title plan reference. Where a plan is referred to in the deed, confirm that the plan number or edition matches the registered plan. Land registry plans are occasionally reissued, and an outdated reference in the deed may need to be updated before registration proceeds.

When a discrepancy is an error and when it reflects a legitimate change

Not every difference is a transcription mistake. Before flagging something as a problem, consider whether the discrepancy reflects a documented administrative or regulatory change. Street names change. Buildings are renumbered by local authorities. Title plans are reissued after boundary adjustments. If a difference has a documentable explanation, the right approach is to acknowledge it in the deed — not to ignore it or silently correct it.

What does require correction before completion is any discrepancy without a clear explanation: a title number that does not match the register, an area that has changed with no subsequent alteration to the property, boundary wording that bears no relationship to the title plan.

Organising the review when the matter file is large

If the file contains more than three documents describing the same property, a field-by-field manual comparison takes significant time and increases the chance of missing something. The most reliable approach is to extract the key data points from each document first — title number, area, address, and boundary description — and place them side by side. Differences become visible without the need to navigate back and forth between documents.

This kind of cross-document comparison is what VerifyAct is built for: load the documents, identify the fields you want to compare, and the tool shows you where the values diverge.

Before the deed goes out for signature

Once you have reviewed the property description, record what you found: which documents you compared, what discrepancies came up, and how each one was resolved. If there were none, record that too. That note is what protects you if the deed is questioned later, and it belongs in the matter file.

Reviewing the property description is not a formality. It is where errors from earlier transactions — a title badly transcribed, an alteration never registered, a renumbering never corrected — reappear and become your problem if they are not caught before the deed completes.

If you'd like support with document review and verification in your practice, VerifyAct has tools built for that.