Conveyancing
Betav0.2 · UK residential & commercial property transactions
SDLT calculation, title investigation, leasehold reform, statutory searches, and leaseholder protections, every response cited to the exact Act and section. Built on legislation.gov.uk, the HMRC SDLT manual, and HMLR Practice Guides. Full primary legislation corpus (18 Acts) + HMRC SDLT Manual (partial) + 25 HMLR Practice Guides ingested on dev. Beta · dev-ready · pending prod promotion.
2,849
Sections Indexed
99.8%
Embedded
Beta · dev-ready
Status
15 May
Last Pipeline Run
About this specialist
The Conveyancing specialist provides cited answers to property transaction queries by searching indexed UK legislation, HMRC guidance, and HM Land Registry practice material. It covers the full residential and commercial transaction lifecycle, from pre-contract searches and SDLT calculation through to title investigation, exchange, and post-completion registration. Designed for residential conveyancers, commercial property solicitors, and in-house property teams who need fast, referenced answers.
Every response includes precise section references to the source Act or HMRC manual, with direct links to legislation.gov.uk. The specialist is purpose-built for property transactions, distinct from the Housing Law specialist which covers landlord/tenant disputes and social housing. SDLT rate tables are hardcoded at current 2025/26 rates and monitored for Budget-cadence changes. The full primary legislation corpus (18 Acts, 2,008 sections), HMRC SDLT Manual pages (816 sections, partial ingest from chapter-leaf pages; deeper recursion planned), and 25 priority HMLR Practice Guides (25 sections) are now ingested on dev and embedded at 99.8%. This specialist is dev-ready and pending promotion to the production API.
Data Sources
18 Acts loaded · SDLT Manual partial (816 pp) · 25 HMLR PGs · 2,849 sections total · Dev-ready| Source | Status | |
|---|---|---|
Core Property Statutes | ||
Land Registration Act 2002 ukpga/2002/9 |
Loaded | |
Law of Property Act 1925 ukpga/1925/20 |
Loaded | |
Land Charges Act 1972 ukpga/1972/61 |
Loaded | |
Trusts of Land & Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 ukpga/1996/47 |
Loaded | |
LP(MP)A 1989: s1, s2 ukpga/1989/34 |
Loaded | |
SDLT & Stamp Duty: HIGH volatility (Budget-cadence updates) | ||
Finance Act 2003 Part 4 (SDLT) Including Sch 4ZA additional dwellings, Sch 6ZA FTB relief, Sch 9A non-resident |
Loaded | |
HMRC SDLT Manual (SDLTM) hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/sdltmanual · full manual est. ~5,000 pp; chapter-leaf pages ingested |
Loaded · partial | |
SDLT rate tables (current from 1 Apr 2025) Hardcoded + monitored for Budget changes |
Loaded | |
Leasehold Reform: HIGHEST volatility (sequenced commencement) | ||
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 ukpga/2024/22 (most provisions NOT yet in force as at May 2026) |
Loaded | |
Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 ukpga/2002/15 |
Loaded | |
Leasehold Reform Act 1967 ukpga/1967/88 |
Loaded | |
Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 ukpga/1993/28 |
Loaded | |
Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (Part II only) ukpga/1954/56 |
Loaded | |
Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 ukpga/1985/70 |
Loaded | |
Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 ukpga/2022/1 |
Loaded | |
Building Safety | ||
Building Safety Act 2022 (ss116–125 + Sch 8 leaseholder protections) ukpga/2022/30 |
Loaded | |
Defective Premises Act 1972 (s1, s4) Extended by BSA 2022 s135 · ukpga/1972/35 |
Loaded | |
HM Land Registry: Practice Guides & Forms | ||
HMLR Practice Guides (priority 25 of ~82) PG1, 6, 8, 19, 24, 25–28, 34, 35, 40, 41, 49, 50, 52, 63, 64, 66, 67, 73, 76, 78, 79, 83 |
Loaded | |
HMLR Forms (AP1, TR1, TP1, FR1, DS1, OC1/2, OS1/2, RX1, K-series) Describe + link, metadata only |
Queued | |
HMLR Open Data Price Paid, UK HPI, Transaction Data, INSPIRE Index Polygons |
Queued | |
HMLR Business Gateway APIs Per-transaction title lookup, live-only |
Queued | |
Land Registration Rules 2003 (SI 2003/1417) uksi/2003/1417 |
Loaded | |
Land Registration Fee Order 2024 Effective 9 Dec 2024, current version |
Queued | |
Statutory Search Backing Law | ||
Local Land Charges Act 1975 |
Queued | |
Environmental Protection Act 1990 Part IIA: contaminated land |
Queued | |
Water Industry Act 1991 ss198–199: drainage |
Queued | |
Coal Industry Act 1994 (now Mining Remediation Authority post Nov 2024) |
Queued | |
Chancel Repairs Act 1932 |
Queued | |
Flood and Water Management Act 2010 |
Queued | |
Family / Matrimonial (touches property transactions) | ||
Family Law Act 1996 Part IV s30 occupation right, s31 Class F charge |
Loaded | |
Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 s24 property adjustment, s24A orders for sale, s37 avoidance of transactions |
Loaded | |
Law Society Materials: describe & link only (Law Society IP) | ||
Conveyancing Protocol 2019 |
Describe-only | |
TA-series forms (TA6 6th ed., TA7, TA8, TA9, TA10, TA13, TA15) |
Describe-only | |
CON29R, CON29O, CON29M, CON29DW |
Describe-only | |
Standard Conditions of Sale 5th ed. |
Describe-only | |
Standard Commercial Property Conditions 3rd ed. |
Describe-only | |
CQS Standards, Scheme Rules, Toolkit |
Describe-only | |
LSAG AML Guidance |
Describe-only | |
18 statutes loaded (2,008 sections) + HMRC SDLT Manual partial (816 pages, chapter-leaf ingest; deeper recursion planned) + 25 HMLR Practice Guides · 2,849 sections total · 99.8% embedded · Statutory search backing law + HMLR forms/open data/APIs queued · 7 Law Society sources describe-only · Last ingest 2026-05-15 · Dev-ready, pending prod promotion
See it in action
Real examples of cited answers from the Conveyancing specialist.
What’s the SDLT on a £450,000 second home completing in June 2026?
Total SDLT: £35,000. Standard residential bands give £12,500 (2% on £125k–£250k slice = £2,500 + 5% on £250k–£450k slice = £10,000), plus the additional dwellings surcharge of 5% applied to the full £450,000 consideration (£22,500).
The 5% surcharge rate has applied from 31 October 2024 under FA 2003 Sch 4ZA (increased from 3% by Autumn Budget 2024). No first-time buyer relief is available on additional dwellings.
FA 2003, Sch 4ZACan my client get a 990-year lease extension under LFRA 2024 in May 2026?
Not yet. The 990-year extension and marriage value abolition provisions of LFRA 2024 are not in force as at May 2026. Commencement has been sequenced: s27 (removal of the 2-year qualifying period) commenced 31 January 2025; RTM provisions ss49–52 commenced 3 March 2025. The valuation reform provisions await further commencement statutory instruments.
The existing route remains: extend under LRHUDA 1993 Chapter II (90-year addition to the unexpired term, premium includes marriage value if the lease has fewer than 80 years unexpired).
LFRA 2024Who uses this specialist
Residential Conveyancers
Fast SDLT workings, first registration triggers, and statutory search obligations, cited to source, without leaving the matter file.
Commercial Property Solicitors
LTA 1954 security of tenure, SDLT on commercial transactions, and HMLR form requirements for complex title structures.
In-House Property Teams
Portfolio SDLT modelling, leasehold reform commencement tracking, and Building Safety Act leaseholder protection queries, at scale.
Mortgage Brokers
SDLT band-by-band calculations for clients including second homes, non-resident surcharge, and first-time buyer relief eligibility.
Node+ integration
The Conveyancing specialist connects to Node+ (the AI agent embedded in each client workspace) via a local MCP (Model Context Protocol) STDIO connection. Node+ can invoke the specialist as a tool call, combine it with other specialists (e.g. Tax/HMRC for SDLT primary law, Housing Law for leasehold context), and synthesise a single cited answer in the chat interface.
All requests stay within the client’s European infrastructure. No query data reaches US servers. The specialist operates in read-only mode against the DuckDB index, so MCP calls never block the ingest pipeline.
Beta · Dev-ready · Pending prod promotion
Full primary legislation corpus, HMRC SDLT Manual (partial), and 25 HMLR Practice Guides are ingested and embedded on dev. The specialist is not yet on the production API; calls to it from a production workspace would fail. Promotion is scheduled once the promotion checklist is cleared. Early access is available. Contact us to register interest.
Ready to automate conveyancing research?
Cited answers covering SDLT, title investigation, leasehold reform, and statutory searches. Built for conveyancers and property solicitors.