How to check that dates are consistent across documents before completion

Dates are the kind of detail that appears more than once in a conveyancing or contract file — a party's date of birth, the date a power of attorney was granted, the expiry date on an identity document, the effective date of the deed itself. When those dates don't tally, the problem may not surface until completion day, or after the deed has already been engrossed and signed.

A systematic date-consistency check takes a few minutes when done in the right order. Here is how to structure it.

Why date discrepancies are common

A matter file is assembled from documents produced by different parties at different times: the deed is drafted in your office, the client provides their ID and any supporting documents, and third parties — land registries, courts, lenders — supply their own certificates and titles.

Each of those sources can introduce an error:

• The date of birth in the deed body differs from the date on the client's identity document.
• A power of attorney was granted before the donor's current identity document was issued, and the birth date in the power doesn't match the current ID.
• A certificate has a fixed validity period and has expired between the date it was obtained and the date of completion.
• The completion date falls outside the validity window of a search result or a lender's mortgage offer.

Most of these are transcription errors or the result of documents being renewed without updating earlier references in the file. They are not usually sinister, but they do need to be resolved before exchange or completion.

Three categories of dates to check

1. Party details

Date of birth is the most common source of mismatch across a matter file. For each party to the deed, check the date of birth against:

• The identity document they have produced for this transaction.
• The deed itself, wherever a date of birth appears in the recitals or execution clause.
• Any earlier document on the file — a power of attorney, a previous contract, a register entry — that names the same party.

The current, valid identity document is the reference. Anything that differs from it needs to be corrected or explained before completion proceeds.

2. Supporting documents

Most supporting documents carry both a date of issue and an effective shelf life. The ones that matter most:

• Powers of attorney: the grant date must pre-date the deed, and any stated expiry must not have passed at completion.
• Identity documents: confirm they are in date at completion. An expired passport or driving licence is grounds for pausing the transaction.
• Searches and official certificates: Land Registry searches, local authority results, and similar certificates have standard validity periods. It is worth setting a house rule — for example, results older than a set number of days are refreshed — and applying it consistently across every matter.

3. Dates within the deed itself

The deed may contain several dates: the date of the transaction, a completion date, a date from which a clause takes effect, a date by which a payment is due. Check that:

• The dates follow a logical sequence: completion cannot precede exchange; a payment date cannot precede the deed date.
• Dates within the deed are consistent with dates in the documents incorporated into or attached to it.

How to run the check

The most efficient method is to pull all the key dates into a single list before comparing, rather than checking each document against the others one by one as you work through the file.

In practice:

1. List each party with every date of birth that appears for them across all documents on the file.
2. List each supporting document with its date of issue and expiry date, if there is one.
3. Note the key dates in the deed: execution date, completion date, any operative dates in the body of the deed.
4. Work through the list: are all birth dates consistent? Is every supporting document still in date at completion? Do the deed's operative dates follow a logical order?

Most discrepancies are caught by direct numerical comparison. Deciding what to do about them is where professional judgement comes in.

When a date does not match

Establish what kind of problem it is before deciding how to handle it:

• Transcription error: one document has the correct date, others have a mistake. Correct the deed before it is signed, or by endorsement if it has already been engrossed.
• No clear reference: no single document settles which date is right. Do not proceed until the client provides documentation that resolves the question.
• Expired document: decide whether it can be renewed in time for completion or whether the matter needs to be rescheduled.

Whatever the resolution, record it on the file: what was inconsistent, where it appeared, how it was resolved, and when.

Recording the check

A brief note in the matter file is enough: which dates were checked, which documents were reviewed, whether any discrepancy was found, and what was done about it. This note is the only evidence — if the question is ever raised — that the check happened before completion rather than after it.

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