What does form SEV ask for, panel by panel?
Form SEV is short, a single application form, lodged on its own without an AP1, but each panel does a specific job and the evidence panel is where applications fail. Panel numbering below follows the edition of 29 August 2023, checked 20 September 2026; check it against the form in force on the date of lodging.
The form is prescribed by the Land Registration Rules 2003 and explained in HM Land Registry Practice Guide 24 (private trusts of land), which also sets out what evidence is accepted where only one joint tenant applies.
| Panel | What it asks for | Common mistakes |
|---|---|---|
| 1, Local authority | The local authority area the property sits in | Guessing, or naming the postal town rather than the authority |
| 2, Title number | The registered title number of the property | Using the address instead; quoting a leasehold title when the freehold is the one held jointly |
| 3, Property | Full postal address as it appears in the property register | Abbreviating or using a newer address the register has never been updated to show |
| 4, Application and fee | The application to enter a Form A restriction. No fee is payable | Editing the restriction wording, or asking for a different form of restriction. That is an RX1, not a SEV |
| 5, The applicant | Full name(s) of the person or people applying | Names that do not match the proprietorship register; a name change never registered |
| 6, Sent to Land Registry by | The name, address and reference of whoever is lodging it, which is where the registry writes back | Leaving it blank; giving the property address for someone who has already moved out |
| 7, Evidence of severance | Four routes: all proprietors apply and no further evidence is needed; a document of severance signed by all of them, as an original or a certified copy; or, where notice was served, the notice with the other owner's signed acknowledgement, or the notice with the applicant's own certificate that it was left at or posted to their last known address and not returned undelivered. A conveyancer may certify instead of enclosing the papers; an applicant acting alone cannot | No notice enclosed; a notice signed but never served; service to an address the other owner had left |
| 8, Application | The Form A restriction wording itself, already printed on the form | Retyping or amending the prescribed wording |
| 9, Signature | Signature of each applicant (or their conveyancer) and the date | One signature where both were said to be applying; an undated form |
Can I complete form SEV myself?
Yes. Form SEV is one of the simpler HM Land Registry applications, no fee is payable, and where both owners sign there is no evidence to assemble. Entering a Form A restriction is not on the list of applications in Practice Guide 67 that call for evidence of identity, so an ID1 is not usually asked for, though the registrar can still require one in a particular case under rule 17 of the Land Registration Rules 2003 (updated 1 September 2026, checked 20 September 2026).
The form is rarely the problem. The problems are legal: whether the notice was drafted and served in a way that actually severed the tenancy, whether the shares should be recorded in a deed of trust, and what the will now needs to say. Those are what people instruct us for. Our severance service covers the whole sequence; this page covers the form.
| Doing it yourself | With Property Law Online | |
|---|---|---|
| Checking the title is held as joint tenants | You obtain the register and read the proprietorship entries | We obtain and read it on day one |
| Drafting the notice of severance | Your own wording, at your own risk | Drafted to satisfy section 36(2) LPA 1925 |
| Proving service on the other owner | You arrange it and keep the evidence | Served by a method that can be proved, evidence kept on file |
| Completing and lodging form SEV | No charge to download; you post it | Completed, checked and lodged; regular written updates |
| Answering a requisition | You, within HM Land Registry's deadline | Us, usually the same week |
| Will and deed of trust | Separate instruction elsewhere | Quoted and done in the same instruction |
| Cost | No HM Land Registry fee; your time | One fixed fee, in writing, before you start |
What changes once the Form A restriction is on the register?
The restriction reads, in substance, that no disposition by a sole proprietor under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by court order. In practice it means that if one of you dies, the survivor cannot sell alone: a second trustee has to be appointed to receive the sale money, which is how the deceased owner's share is protected for whoever inherits it.
Severance creates shares, and unless a deed of trust says otherwise those shares are presumed equal. It does not change the mortgage, the council tax or who lives there. The comparison of the two ways of owning is in joint tenants or tenants in common.