Which documents should you have in hand before starting a pre-completion review?

The pre-completion review is a systematic comparison of data across sources. For that comparison to work, the sources have to be complete before you begin. Starting with an incomplete file is the most consistent reason discrepancies get missed.

These are the four document groups that need to be assembled before you open the engrossment.

The engrossment

Start with the final version of the deed or contract — the engrossment the parties are about to execute. Not a working draft, not the version from last week: the document that will actually be signed.

If the file has gone through multiple rounds of amendments, the risk of carrying a stale version into the review is real. Confirm that what you have is the current execution copy before opening it. A review done on the wrong version is not a review.

Identity documents for every party

For each individual named in the deed — transferor, transferee, mortgagor, guarantor, any party who needs to be identified — you need a current identity document. Not a copy taken at the file-opening stage weeks earlier: the document the client will bring on the day.

If someone is acting under a power of attorney, you need both: the donee's identity and the donor's. If an individual is signing on behalf of a company, their personal identity document is still required alongside the company's authority documents — the company's standing does not substitute for the individual's identity.

The right moment to check that all identity documents are present is before the review begins, not halfway through it when the absence of one brings the whole thing to a halt.

Authority documents

These establish that a person or entity has the right to act in this transaction with this capacity. Depending on the transaction, they include:

• Powers of attorney, where someone is acting on behalf of another. The instrument needs to be in the file before the review starts — not just reported as existing by the client.
• Company search and board resolution, where a company is a party. A current company search, the resolution authorising the transaction, the appointment or confirmation of the authorised signatory. Which of these applies depends on the transaction type and the company's own requirements; what stays constant is that the authority needs to be established by a document, not by assertion.
• Marriage or divorce certificates, where the deed records a change in name or marital status that is relevant to the transaction. If you need to confirm that a party has capacity to deal freely with a property, the document that establishes that needs to be in the file.

Reference documents

These are earlier instruments the current deed refers to or depends on. A transfer that recites the discharge of a charge needs that charge in the file. A deed poll recording a name change, if it affects how a party is described in the engrossment, is a reference document. A lease being varied or surrendered needs to be there.

Reference documents are not always checked line by line in the same way as identity documents, but they establish the data the current deed is expected to follow: how parties are identified, how the property is described, what the existing encumbrances are. Missing one leaves a gap in the review even if everything else has been cross-checked.

Why assembling the file comes before opening the engrossment

A pre-completion review is not a reading. It is a structured comparison of specific data points across multiple documents. That comparison requires that the documents be present.

Starting with an incomplete file has two effects. The first is visible: the review stops the moment a discrepancy depends on a document that isn't there. The second is harder to notice: when a missing document arrives partway through, the natural move is to continue from where you left off rather than go back over what you've already covered. That is how errors get through that would not have, had the file been complete from the start.

The specific documents required for any transaction vary by transaction type, the nature of the parties, and what the engrossment itself requires. What does not vary is when to verify they are all present: before you open the engrossment and begin.