Form

Guidance: change your name after marriage or civil partnership

Updated 7 October 2024

Applies to England and Wales

The most common reason for changing a name in the register (sometimes known as ‘house deeds’) is after getting married or entering into a civil partnership. Here we’ll look at how to apply to update your name in the Land Register after you’ve tied the knot.

Check your name in the register

One of the biggest cause of delays when dealing with property is when a name is different from the name recorded in the register. HM Land Registry, banks and solicitors all carry out identity checks before a transaction takes place, particularly when re-financing.

It’s common for lenders to refuse to lend money unless your details exactly match the register. So, if you got married and remortgaged at the same time, the lender might insist you update your name with us before they’ll authorise a mortgage offer.

Use our Search for property information from HM Land Registry service to check your name is correct on the register. It costs £7 for a copy of a title register.

Name change by marriage or civil partnership

To make an application to change your name in the register following marriage or a civil partnership, download and fill in an AP1 form. Send the completed form by post, together with your evidence, to:

Address for members of the public

HM Land Registry
Citizen Centre
PO Box 7806
Bilston
WV1 9QR

You do not have to pay anything to change your name.

How to fill in form AP1

To change your name, you need to fill in panels:

• 1 to 7
• 15

Additional guidance

Panel 1

You can find your local authority on your council tax bill.

Panel 2

The title number is at the top of your title register. Use our Search for land and property information service to download your title register.

Panel 3

Your application is likely to affect the whole of the property rather than just a part of it. Put an ‘X’ in the first box (‘the whole of the title(s)’).

Panel 4

In the first column, under Applications in priority order, state “Change of name”. There’s no fee for this, so put 0 under Fees paid.

Panel 5

Enter the documents you’ve included with your AP1 form such as a marriage certificate.

Panel 6

If you are applying, enter your new name. If someone else is applying, enter the new name of the person applying.

Panel 7

Enter your new name, address, email address (if you have one) and phone number.

Panel 15

Sign and date your AP1 form.

Panels you do not need to fill in

To change your name, you do not need to fill in panel:

• 8 (third party notification)
• 9 (only fill this in if you are updating your address as well as changing your name)
• 10 (new charges)
• 11 (disclosable overriding interests)
• 12 (confirmation of identity)
• 13 (for use by conveyancers)
• 14 if you send us your marriage or civil partnership certificate as evidence

Change your address as well as your name

To change your name fill in panels 1 to 7 and 15 of the form AP1 as set out above.

To change your address at the same time, you should also complete panel 9 of the AP1 form and provide evidence of identity with your application. For information on the types of documents you can use, see Registering land or property with HM Land Registry. For further guidance on completing confirmation of identity forms, see Completing forms ID1 and ID2.

Change your address only

If you are not updating your name, use form COG1 to update your contact address. Do not use form AP1. For more information see Update registered owners’ contact address (COG1) or watch our YouTube video: How to update your contact address.

Include your evidence

You do not need to send us the original documents, but you must send us a certified copy of the document you used to change your name, such as your marriage or civil partnership certificate. You can certify a document yourself. On the face of the copied document write:

I certify this to be a true copy of the original dated……… signed……………..Name printed…………….address…………….date………….

For more information, see our YouTube video: How to certify a document for HM Land Registry.

Married abroad

If you were married outside the UK and your marriage or civil partnership certificate is not in English, you must send us a verified translation of the certificate. A verified translation is any document that has been translated, signed, stamped and dated by a professional and qualified linguist (or translation agency) to confirm that it is a true (accurate and complete) representation of the original text.

Notice period

In most cases, when we process a name change application, unless a solicitor has sent it to us, we’ll send a letter to the registered proprietor to tell them there’s been an application to change their name. This is to safeguard against fraud. We cannot complete the application until any notice period stated on the letter has passed or the notice is signed and returned to us, so it could take a few weeks to complete.

Protecting you against fraud

In all cases we need proof of any change of name to guard against fraud. If you simply decide to call yourself something else but have no documentation, we won’t be able to update the register.

For more information on changing your name on the register, see Registering land or property with HM Land Registry.

How to watch our YouTube videos

There are YouTube videos on this page. If you cannot access them because of your cookie settings, you can change your cookie settings here or watch the videos on our YouTube playlist instead: How to update your contact address, How to certify a document for HM Land Registry, How to complete form ID1.