What documents belong in an LPE1 pack, and the consequences of gaps
Last reviewed · owner Mike Fellows · general information, not legal advice
The LPE1 is the standard enquiry form completed when a leasehold property is sold. A complete pack means the block's records can answer it: three years of service charge accounts, the buildings insurance policy, the fire risk assessment, any asbestos survey, planned major works with their consultation papers, and the arrears position. Gaps do not stop the questions being asked. They stop the sale while somebody hunts for answers.
What is the LPE1 form for?
It standardises the information a buyer's side needs before exchange on a leasehold sale: who manages the building, what it costs to live there, what work is planned, what is owed and what is in dispute. It was developed jointly by the conveyancing and property management bodies so that every sale does not begin with a bespoke list of enquiries. The freeholder, the management company or the managing agent on their behalf completes it, usually for a fee. Buyers and their lenders rely on the answers, which is worth remembering when a question is tempting to answer from memory. A wrong answer is worse than a slow one.
Which documents does a complete LPE1 pack include?
The service charge accounts for the last three years and the current budget. The buildings insurance policy and schedule. The current fire risk assessment. The asbestos survey where the building is old enough to need one. Details of planned or ongoing major works, together with their Section 20 consultation papers. The ground rent and service charge position for the property being sold, including any arrears. Known disputes, and the constitutional documents where the management company is owned by the leaseholders. Leaseholders separately hold statutory rights to service charge information under sections 21 and 22 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, so a pack that cannot produce the underlying records is exposed on more than one front.
What happens when the pack has gaps?
The sale waits. Each gap becomes a follow-up enquiry, and the transaction moves at the speed of the slowest answer. A missing fire risk assessment or insurance schedule can make a lender decline to advance funds. A question answered "not held" invites the buyer to negotiate a retention, renegotiate the price, or walk away. The cost lands on the seller first, but the cause usually sits with the building: records that were never indexed while they were easy to find.
Who is responsible for producing it, and in what timescale?
Whoever holds the records: the freeholder, the residents' management company, or the managing agent acting for either. The form itself carries no statutory deadline, which is why response times vary from days to months. The underlying statutory rights do carry deadlines. A written request for a summary of service charge costs under section 21 must be met within one month of the request, or within six months of the end of the accounting period it covers, whichever is later. In practice the real timescale is set by one thing: how findable the records are on the day the form arrives.
Sources
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, s.21 (1985)
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, s.22 (1985)
- GOV.UK, Leasehold property (accessed 2026-08-28)
This page is general information for property professionals, not legal advice. For a decision that matters, take advice on your specific facts.