What is BASPI and why does it matter for conveyancing?

BASPI (Buying and Selling Property Information) is a standardised property information questionnaire developed by the Conveyancing Association, HMLR, and the Law Society as part of the UK's move toward digital property logbooks and upfront information. It replaces the fragmented TA6, TA7, TA10, and CON29 forms with a single structured dataset. Pre-populating BASPI with API data at instruction reduces the time sellers spend completing forms and reduces the risk of errors that cause transaction delays.

What property data can be pre-populated in BASPI via API?

The Homedata API can pre-populate: UPRN and verified address, tenure (freehold/leasehold/commonhold), title number (HMLR), EPC band and certificate expiry date, floor area, council tax band, flood zone, planning constraint flags (conservation area, listed building, TPO), and comparable sold prices. These fields cover a significant portion of the property-specific factual data required in BASPI Sections A and B.

Use Case — Conveyancing Digitalisation

Conveyancing Digitalisation: BASPI Pre-Population via Property Data API

Q: What is the Digital Property Logbook initiative?

The Digital Property Logbook initiative — supported by HMLR's Digital Registration Service and the Ministry of Housing — aims to give every property a persistent digital record containing title information, EPC data, planning history, building certificates, and property information questionnaires. Property Logbook providers including Chimni, Moverly, and HMLR's own logbook connect to government APIs to aggregate this data. The Homedata API provides the structured property attribute layer that logbooks need.

The UK's digital property logbook initiative is moving conveyancing away from paper forms and toward pre-populated structured data at instruction. The Homedata API provides the property attribute layer — UPRN, EPC, tenure, flood risk, council tax — that makes BASPI and TA6 pre-population possible.

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The problem: manual form completion delays transactions

UK residential conveyancing takes an average of 12–16 weeks from offer acceptance to completion. A significant portion of this delay is attributable to the property information gathering stage — the seller completing TA6, TA7, TA10 forms manually, often inaccurately, and the conveyancer chasing missing information.

The BASPI standardisation initiative addresses this by creating a machine-readable property information format. But the step-change in speed comes from pre-populating the factual fields automatically at instruction — so the seller only needs to confirm or correct, not create from scratch.

Fields Homedata can pre-populate

✓ Verified address in Royal Mail format
✓ UPRN (Unique Property Reference Number)
✓ Tenure — freehold, leasehold, or commonhold
✓ HMLR title number
✓ EPC band and certificate expiry date
✓ Floor area (sqm from EPC lodgement)
✓ Council tax band (VOA)
✓ Flood zone (Environment Agency)
✓ Conservation area / listed building status
✓ Planning application history summary

How pre-population works

1
Address entered at instruction — conveyancer or seller types the property address into the case management system.
2
UPRN resolved — the Homedata address lookup API returns the UPRN for the address in under 200ms.
3
Property attributes fetched — a single summary call returns tenure, EPC, flood risk, council tax band, and planning constraints.
4
BASPI pre-populated — factual fields are inserted into the BASPI form automatically; seller only confirms or adds material fact fields.

GET /api/properties/10023456789/summary/
Authorization: Api-Key YOUR_KEY

{
  "uprn": "10023456789",
  "address": "14 Thornton Road, Bristol, BS7 8EJ",
  "tenure": "freehold",
  "title_number": "AV12345",
  "epc_rating": "D",
  "epc_expiry": "2027-03-15",
  "floor_area_sqm": 88,
  "council_tax_band": "E",
  "flood_risk": {
    "zone": "1",
    "surface_water": "low"
  },
  "planning": {
    "conservation_area": false,
    "listed_building": false,
    "tree_preservation_order": false
  }
}

Frequently asked questions

What is BASPI?

Buying and Selling Property Information — a standardised property information questionnaire replacing TA6/TA7/TA10 as part of the UK's digital conveyancing initiative.

What data can be pre-populated via the Homedata API?

Address, UPRN, tenure, title number, EPC band and expiry, floor area, council tax band, flood zone, conservation area/listed building flags, and planning application summary.

What is the Digital Property Logbook initiative?

A government and industry initiative to create persistent digital records for every property — combining title, EPC, planning, and property information data. Homedata provides the structured property attribute layer for logbook providers.