This year, we are launching Caseworkers’ Top 10 tips for tip-top applications - quick checks or changes you can make that could more than halve the number of requisitions you receive.
In 2023, we raised 986,036 requisitions, 70% of which (695,380) boiled down to around 30 specific points. None involved a certificate or consent, but collectively they took us – and more importantly you, our customers – a huge amount of time and money to resolve.
Our caseworkers have put together 10 top tips to address some of the most common requisitions – simple points that punch above their weight in terms of delaying applications, but which are quick and easy to eliminate. Caseworkers say that if you follow these 10 top tips, you will avoid more than 20 very common requisition points.
We’ve assembled the 10 top tips into a collection of short, snappy videos and made them available on YouTube, as well as our Customer Training and HM Land Registry Essentials hubs. We will also be posting them on our social channels at regular intervals. And you are, of course, welcome to download any or all of them to use in your own in-house training.
We recognise, appreciate and value the excellent work many of our customers are putting in to submit clear, correct and complete applications – you can read more about this in our series of case studies on GOV.UK.
And while some of the tips might seem very basic – even obvious – we send a huge number of requisitions over these points. In 2023, we sent more than 84,000 in relation to missing information alone.
We are also keenly aware that what all of you, our customers, want from us more than anything else is better speed of service and an end to backlogs. We want this, too. And while of course we realise that reducing requisitions will not fix these issues, it will help.
This is a shared responsibility: we know we send requisitions that could have been avoided, and we are working hard to stop this happening. So, as you might expect, Top 10 tips are just one of many initiatives we’re introducing to tackle requisitions overall, which also include:
- a thorough and ongoing review of our internal processes, focusing on accuracy and consistency; and
- the largest training and upskilling of our caseworkers in our 160-year history.
Among the improvements we’re focusing on to help customers - and especially staff new to conveyancing and post-completion teams, are:
- system checks and enhancements to ‘design-out’ errors at point of submission; and
- new and enhanced training materials and guidance for professional customers and members of the public.
Finally, our Top 10 tips don’t cover everything – after all, there are more than 1,500 standard requisition points – and they’re not designed for debating the nuances of land law. But they do include the simple points we see over and again. Getting those right first time will certainly save you plenty of time, money and frustration.
So, look out for our top 10 and, if you have any tried and tested tips to avoid a requisition, let us know. Wherever possible, we’ll share them, too.
You can find the tips on GOV.UK
General help in avoiding requisitions:
Guidance:
Webinars:
How to avoid requests for information
Checklist:
We welcome your comments about this blog in the comments below. Please note that we are unable to discuss individual cases through the comments section and would request that all such queries be directed to our Contact Us web form where you will receive a response as soon as possible.
1 comment
Comment by Linda Harbron posted on
Excellent training tips, straight to the point and very clear.