Transferring a property into your limited company: the conveyancing process

Moving a buy-to-let out of your own name and into a limited company is, in law, a sale. You are one legal person, the company is another, and the property is changing hands between them. That single fact drives everything on this page: there is no shortcut, no "change of details" form, and no way to update HM Land Registry without going through the same conveyancing process you would follow if you were selling to a stranger. Title has to be investigated, a transfer deed executed, a stamp duty return filed and a new registered proprietor entered on the register.

The part landlords find hardest to accept is that they have to pay a conveyancer to sell a property to themselves. Nobody is negotiating, nobody is hiding a defect in the title, and the buyer already knows the property better than any survey would tell him. Yet the deed still has to be drafted and executed, the register still has to be changed, and a lender still has to be repaid, and every one of those is a job with a professional standing behind it. There is even a conflict question to answer before anything starts: can one firm act for both the seller and the buyer when you are both of them? Usually yes, sometimes no, and the answer is set by the company's lender rather than by you.

The tax charges are handled on two other pages: the stamp duty cost of transferring property to a company and the tax how-to for transferring property into a limited company. Quantify both before you read any further, because they usually decide the question. If you are still weighing up incorporating at all, start at the property company hub. What follows is the process: who does each task, why the personal mortgage almost always has to go, when you need a valuation, what HM Land Registry does with the title, and what fills the 6 to 12 weeks.

What actually happens when you transfer a property to your own company

The transaction is a disposal by you and an acquisition by the company. Because the company has its own legal personality, the transfer cannot be treated as an internal reshuffle of your own assets, however completely you own and control the company. The consequence for the conveyancing is that the full process applies, in the same order and with the same documents as an arm's-length sale.

In outline, the sequence runs: instruct a solicitor, incorporate the company if it does not already exist, apply for the limited-company mortgage, solicitor investigates title and raises the usual enquiries, lender instructs a valuation, mortgage offer issued, solicitor satisfies the lender's conditions and prepares the transfer deed, exchange and completion (often the same day on a connected-party transfer), the existing personal mortgage is redeemed and its charge released, the stamp duty land tax return is filed, and the company is registered at HM Land Registry as the new proprietor with the lender's charge noted against the title.

Two things distinguish it from a normal purchase. First, there is no chain and no counterparty risk, because you are on both sides, which removes the most common source of delay. Second, the price is not set by negotiation, so market value has to be evidenced rather than simply agreed. Everything else is standard conveyancing.

Who does the legal work: the solicitor's role

You need a conveyancing solicitor or licensed conveyancer. This is not a transaction to attempt yourself: the company's lender will require a solicitor to act on its charge, and the combination of a redemption, a new charge, a connected-party transfer deed and a stamp duty filing is not a form-filling exercise.

The solicitor's work covers:

• Title investigation. Obtaining official copies of the register and title plan, checking for restrictions, easements, covenants and any existing charges, and confirming that the title can be transferred as intended.
• The transfer deed. Drafting and completing form TR1, the standard HM Land Registry transfer of registered title, naming you as transferor and the company (by name and company number) as transferee, executed correctly on the company's side by a director or by the method its articles allow.
• Dealing with the existing mortgage. Obtaining a redemption statement from your personal lender, calculating the exact figure to completion including any early repayment charge, redeeming on the day and obtaining the release of the charge.
• The new lender's requirements. Reporting on title to the company's lender, complying with its conditions, certifying the company's constitutional documents and identifying the directors and people with significant control.
• Searches. The usual property searches (local authority, drainage and water, environmental, and a chancel or mining search where the area calls for one) still run, because the company's lender requires them even though you already occupy the position of an informed buyer. On top of those comes a company search against the buyer: its status at Companies House, its filing history, its directors, and its charges register, to confirm the company exists, is not subject to a pending strike-off, and carries no unexpected security.
• The stamp duty return. Preparing and submitting the SDLT return and paying the duty. The general filing deadline is 14 days from the effective date of the transaction under the Finance Act 2003 filing rules, and the solicitor normally handles this as part of completion.
• Registration. Lodging form AP1 with the executed TR1, the evidence of identity, the stamp duty certificate and the registration fee, so that HM Land Registry updates the register.

In most cases one firm can act for both you and the company, subject to its conflict checks and professional conduct obligations, because the transaction is not adversarial. Where a company lender is involved, it may require a firm from its own panel, and some lenders insist on separate representation. Establish that at the quote stage rather than after you have instructed.

On cost: conveyancing on this kind of transfer is priced like a purchase, and there is usually a second element for acting on the new charge, plus disbursements including searches, identity checks and the Land Registry registration fee (which is set by a published scale based on property value). Fees differ substantially between firms and by property value, so obtain two or three written, itemised quotes rather than working from a single figure you have read somewhere. The current registration fee scale is published by HM Land Registry on gov.uk.

Do you need lender consent? Redeeming versus remortgaging

This is the single biggest process question, and it is where most transfers stall.

If the property carries a personal mortgage, you cannot hand the property to the company and leave the loan where it is. The lender has a legal charge over the title and a borrower who is a specific individual. Two routes exist in theory:

• Redemption and a new limited-company mortgage. The company applies for its own buy-to-let mortgage, and on completion the company's borrowing (plus any cash it puts in) is used to repay your personal loan in full. Your lender releases its charge, the company's lender takes a new one. This is what happens in almost every case.
• Transfer of equity with the company assuming the liability. The existing lender consents to the company taking over the borrowing on the same charge. Most residential buy-to-let lenders do not offer this to a corporate transferee, so it is rarely available in practice.

Plan on the first route. That means the limited-company mortgage application is a live part of the transaction from day one, running in parallel with the conveyancing, and it will pace the whole thing. A newly formed company can borrow, and the criteria a company lender applies are set out in our guide to SPV mortgages and lender criteria.

Two cost items to check before you commit. First, any early repayment charge on your current personal deal: if you are inside a fixed period, redeeming early can be expensive, and waiting is a legitimate reason to delay the whole transfer. Second, the new company product's rate and arrangement fee, which are typically less favourable than a comparable personal deal, though the gap has narrowed considerably.

Valuation: why you need one even in a cash transfer

If the company is borrowing, its lender will instruct an independent valuation, normally by a RICS-registered valuer, as part of underwriting. You pay for it, the report belongs to the lender, and the loan is sized on the valuation figure rather than on the price you and the company have written down.

Where landlords go wrong is assuming that a cash transfer, with no company borrowing, means no valuation is needed. It does not follow. Because you and the company are connected, the transaction is treated for tax purposes as taking place at market value whatever price is recorded, so market value is a figure you have to be able to justify to HMRC if asked. Setting it too low does not reduce the charge, it simply creates an exposure. A professional valuation, or at minimum well-documented comparable evidence gathered at the date of transfer, is good practice regardless of how the purchase is funded.

Get the valuation basis right too: it is the market value of the property with vacant possession or subject to the tenancy as the case may be, at the date of the transfer, not a historic purchase price and not a figure carried over from a remortgage two years ago.

Land Registry: registering the company as the new proprietor

Completion does not finish the job. Until HM Land Registry updates the register, the company is not the legal owner as far as the public record is concerned, and the transfer is not complete in law.

What the registration does is replace you with the company in the proprietorship register of the existing title. The company is entered by its registered name and its company number, which is why the company must be incorporated before the transfer deed is drawn. The title number itself normally continues unchanged; a new title number is created only where the transaction splits or reconfigures the land. Alongside the change of proprietor, the outgoing lender's charge is removed from the charges register and the incoming company lender's charge is entered.

The application is lodged by the solicitor on form AP1, with the executed TR1, the evidence of identity for the parties, the stamp duty certificate confirming the return has been filed, and the registration fee from the published scale. Verify the current forms and fee scale at the time of your transaction, as HM Land Registry updates both. This is a full change of registered proprietor following the same route as any other sale, not an administrative update to details on an existing entry, and it cannot be done informally.

The same machinery runs in reverse if the property later comes back out of the company into your own name, a journey sometimes called a reconveyance: another transfer deed, another registration, and its own tax consequences, covered in our guide to transferring property out of a limited company into a personal name.

Registration is also not instant. HM Land Registry processing times vary, and a straightforward transfer of a registered title is normally handled faster than an application involving new titles or plan changes, but it can take weeks or longer after completion. That delay does not affect the beneficial position between you and the company, which changes on completion, and it does not affect the tax dates, which run from the effective date of the transaction.

How long does it take, and what paces it

Expect 6 to 12 weeks from instruction to completion for a transfer involving a limited-company mortgage. The conveyancing element is faster than a typical sale because there is one property, no chain and a co-operative counterparty on the other side, so what fills the calendar is the finance.

Stage	Typical elapsed time	What can extend it
Incorporate the company and open its bank account	Days	Bank account opening, PSC and identity checks
Mortgage application to offer	3 to 6 weeks	Valuation booking, underwriter queries, unusual property type
Title investigation and enquiries	2 to 4 weeks, in parallel	Leasehold titles, restrictions, missing documents
Redemption statement from the existing lender	1 to 2 weeks	Slow lender response, early repayment charge queries
Satisfying lender conditions, exchange and completion	1 to 2 weeks	Outstanding conditions, funds release timing
SDLT return filed	Within 14 days of the effective date	Rarely a delay, handled by the solicitor
Land Registry registration	Weeks after completion	Requisitions raised by the registry, complex titles

Leasehold property is the most common reason a transfer runs past 12 weeks, because the freeholder or managing agent has to supply a management pack and may have to be given notice of the transfer and of the new charge, each with its own fee and its own response time. Start that request early. A cash transfer with no borrowing at either end, on a straightforward freehold title, can complete in a matter of weeks.

The tax side in brief

Two tax charges sit on this transaction and both are covered properly elsewhere. Stamp duty land tax is normally charged on the property's market value because you and the company are connected parties, so duty is payable even where no cash changes hands, and the higher rates applying to company purchases of dwellings are in point. Capital gains tax may arise on your disposal, again computed by reference to market value rather than any price actually paid, though section 162 incorporation relief can defer the gain where a genuine letting business is transferred as a going concern, on conditions that changed materially from 6 April 2026.

For the stamp duty rates and worked figures, see the cost of stamp duty on transferring property to a company. For the capital gains position and the incorporation relief mechanics, see how to transfer property into a limited company. Both charges should be quantified before you instruct a solicitor, because together they frequently exceed the professional fees by an order of magnitude and they are what determines whether the transfer is worth doing at all.

Who handles what: solicitor, broker and you

Three parties do the work, and the most common cause of drift is a task nobody realised was theirs.

Task	Solicitor or conveyancer	Mortgage broker or lender	You, the landlord
Incorporate the company, SIC code, PSC register	No	No	Yes
Limited-company mortgage application	No	Yes	Supply documents
RICS valuation	No	Instructs it	Pays for it, arranges access
Title investigation and enquiries	Yes	No	Answer queries
TR1 transfer deed	Yes	No	Sign it, both sides
Redemption of the existing personal mortgage	Yes, on completion	Provides the statement	Authorise the request
New lender's legal conditions and charge	Yes	Sets them	Personal guarantee, if required
SDLT return and payment	Yes	No	Fund the duty
AP1 registration at HM Land Registry	Yes	No	Identity evidence
Telling tenants and updating the tenancy paperwork	No	No	Yes
Reassigning deposits held in a protection scheme	No	No	Yes
Landlord insurance in the company's name	No	No	Yes
Company accounting, corporation tax registration	No	No	Yes, with your accountant

The bottom four rows are the ones landlords forget. Tenancy deposits held under a protection scheme are registered to a named landlord, and when the landlord changes the deposit has to be dealt with under the scheme's rules and the tenants given updated prescribed information. Failing to do so has consequences under the deposit protection regime that have nothing to do with the conveyancing but everything to do with your ability to serve notice later. Insurance in the wrong name is the other trap: a policy issued to you personally may not respond once the company owns the property. Guidance on deposit protection duties is published on gov.uk.

Worked example: one property, one existing mortgage, one new SPV

A landlord owns a single let flat, held personally, worth £260,000 at the date of transfer, with an outstanding personal buy-to-let mortgage of £150,000 on a fixed rate that expires in two months. She wants it held in a newly formed company. Here is how the transaction runs.

Week	What happens
0	Company incorporated with a property SIC code. Broker instructed. Conveyancing quotes obtained from three firms, itemising the transfer, the charge work and disbursements. Solicitor instructed.
1	Mortgage application submitted for a company buy-to-let at 75 per cent loan-to-value. Solicitor orders official copies of the title and begins investigation. Redemption statement requested from the existing personal lender, including the early repayment charge figure.
2	Redemption statement received: the early repayment charge falls away at the end of week 8, so completion is deliberately targeted after that date. Lender instructs its valuation; access arranged with the tenant.
4	Valuation returned at £260,000, supporting a company loan of £195,000. Underwriter raises queries on the directors' guarantees.
6	Mortgage offer issued to the company. Solicitor reports on title to the new lender and works through its conditions.
8	TR1 prepared, naming the landlord as transferor and the company (by name and number) as transferee. Both sides execute. Company funds the balance above the loan by way of a director's loan.
9	Exchange and completion on the same day, after the early repayment charge period has expired. The £150,000 personal mortgage is redeemed from the company's loan proceeds and the personal charge released.
9	SDLT return filed within the 14 day window, computed on the £260,000 market value at the rates applying to a company purchase of a dwelling. AP1 lodged with HM Land Registry.
10 onwards	Landlord updates the insurance into the company's name, deals with the tenancy deposit under the scheme's change-of-landlord rules, notifies the tenant of the new landlord and rent account, and registers the company for corporation tax.

The transfer completed in nine weeks, and the pacing item was the deliberate wait for the early repayment charge to fall away, not the conveyancing. Had the fixed rate expired already, the same transaction would have completed in six to seven weeks, limited by the mortgage underwriting. The stamp duty on a £260,000 market value at company rates, and the capital gains position on the landlord's disposal, are the two figures that had to be quantified before any of this started, and they are set out on the two pages linked above.

Common process mistakes

• Instructing the solicitor before the company exists. The company is the buyer named in the contract and the deed. Incorporate first.
• Assuming a cash transfer needs no valuation. Market value governs the tax whether or not a lender ever looks at the property.
• Missing the early repayment charge. Ask for the redemption statement in week one, not week six.
• Leaving the leasehold pack until late. Freeholders and managing agents work to their own timetable and charge their own fees for a notice of transfer and notice of charge.
• Forgetting the tenancy deposit and the insurance. Neither is the solicitor's job and both have consequences if left undone.
• Committing to a completion date before the mortgage offer exists. There is no chain forcing your hand, so there is no reason to.

None of these are legal difficulties. They are sequencing errors, and they are the reason a transaction that should take eight weeks takes five months.

The journey runs the other way too: if a company already holds a property and you are weighing whether to extract it back into personal ownership, the conveyancing mechanics and the tax exposure are different again, and are covered in our guide to transferring property out of a limited company to a personal name.