Moving house in Wales: what's actually different

If you've read the moving house in Scotland page, or a guide that treats Scotland as genuinely separate, it's natural to expect the same for Wales. Mostly you'd be wrong to. Conveyancing law in Wales follows the same shape as England's — the same survey arrangement, the same exchange of contracts as the point of no return, the same Land Registry. Two things are actually different, and this page is about those two.

What's the same as England

• The survey. You commission your own, same as in England — usually an RICS Home Survey Level 2 or 3. There is no Welsh equivalent of Scotland's seller-provided Home Report.
• The point of no return. Exchange of contracts, with a deposit cleared in your conveyancer's account first — identical mechanism to England.
• Where the title is registered. HM Land Registry, the same body that covers England.
• Local authority searches. The same LLC1/CON29 forms as England, through the same system.

What's actually different

Land Transaction Tax: same job, different collector and deadline

Your conveyancer files the return and pays it on your behalf either way, so this rarely needs your own attention — but two things are worth checking rather than assuming: it goes to the Welsh Revenue Authority, not HMRC, and the deadline is thirty days from the day after completion, not the fourteen days that applies in England. Thresholds, rates and reliefs are set separately from England's and change, so use the Welsh Revenue Authority's own calculator for your purchase rather than a number in any guide — the moving house costs page deliberately doesn't quote one either.

Council tax: a ninth band, and still two separate accounts

The mechanics of telling your council are identical to England's — close the old account and open the new one, and claim the single-adult discount again at the new address if it applies; it doesn't carry across. The one genuine difference is the banding itself: Wales rebanded every property against 2003 values and added a ninth band, so a property's Welsh band isn't simply read across from an equivalent English one on the same figures. Your new council's own tax bill, not a guide, is the place to check which band you've actually been put in.

What this page deliberately leaves out

Renting law in Wales changed substantially with the Renting Homes (Wales) Act — different terminology and different rules from England's assured shorthold tenancies. That's a genuine difference, but it belongs on a page about tenancies, not buying and selling, and this page isn't the place to state its specifics without checking them against the Act itself. If you're ending a tenancy in Wales, treat the end of tenancy checklist as the England-shaped starting point and confirm your notice period and process with your tenancy agreement, your landlord, or Shelter Cymru — not with this page.

MovePlan's checklist already treats survey, exchange and Land Registry as identical across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and gets the tax and council tax steps right for wherever you're moving to — dated from your own move, not a generic month. It's £14.99 once, for a six-month pass; it organises and drafts the letters, and you do the telling.