When a home with an alarm system or security cameras goes up for sale in England or Wales, the seller does not get to simply unplug the system and leave. A specific question on the standard conveyancing paperwork covers what happens to codes, keys, and equipment, and getting the answer wrong can carry real legal consequences after completion.
The TA6 form and where alarms sit in it
The Law Society’s TA6 Property Information Form is the standard document sellers complete in an England and Wales conveyancing transaction, working alongside the buyer’s solicitor to surface facts a purchaser needs before exchange. The current sixth edition, published by the Law Society in 2025, places the relevant question inside its Completion section. Question 14.2(d) asks the seller to confirm whether “keys to all windows and doors and details of codes for alarms and any other equipment will be left at the property or with the estate agent.” A yes or no tick box answer is required, and it sits alongside related completion undertakings covering rubbish removal, light fittings, and reasonable care when removing other fixtures.
This means an alarm system is treated on the same footing as keys: something the buyer is entitled to expect will be usable from the moment they take possession, unless the seller has said otherwise in writing before exchange. A seller planning to take a monitored alarm’s control panel, or to deliberately withhold the code, needs to flag that in the transaction rather than leaving the buyer to discover it after moving in.
CCTV and cameras are not asked about directly
The TA6 form does not contain a dedicated question naming CCTV or security cameras. Cameras are, however, capable of falling within the form’s earlier Disputes section, which asks whether the seller is aware of anything that might lead to a dispute about the property or a property nearby. A camera positioned so that it records a neighbour’s garden or front door, for example, is the kind of fact that can be relevant to that question if it has already caused friction, even though there is no box specifically labelled “cameras.” Sellers with external cameras should not assume silence on this point is safe simply because there is no dedicated tick box for it.
Why getting this wrong has consequences
The TA6 form is not a piece of paperwork with no legal weight. A false or misleading answer can expose the seller to a claim for misrepresentation under the Misrepresentation Act 1967, and separately under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 where the seller is acting as a consumer. In practice, a buyer who successfully argues that the seller misrepresented what would be left at the property, or concealed a material fact through an inaccurate answer, can seek damages, and in more serious cases can look to rescind the contract entirely. Courts have found sellers liable in TA6-related misrepresentation disputes before, and legal costs on both sides tend to dwarf the value of whatever prompted the dishonest answer in the first place.
What this means in practice
For most sellers the safest approach is straightforward: if the alarm, its keypad code, and any camera app credentials are staying with the property, answer honestly that they will be left, and physically hand over a written code and any relevant instructions at completion, ideally through the estate agent or solicitor so there is a paper trail. If a smart camera or monitored alarm is registered to a cloud account in the seller’s name, that account should be transferred, reset, or its access removed before completion, because leaving a live camera feed accessible to a previous owner after the sale is a privacy problem for the buyer even when the physical hardware has correctly been left behind.
Where a seller intends to take equipment with them, whether a video doorbell bought after moving in or a standalone camera not wired into the property, that should be made clear well before exchange rather than raised for the first time on moving day, since removing something the buyer reasonably expected to stay is one of the more common sources of post-completion disputes in residential conveyancing.
England and Wales scope
The TA6 form and the conveyancing process it sits within apply to residential sales in England and Wales. Scotland uses a different conveyancing system built around the Home Report and separate missives procedure, and Northern Ireland has its own conveyancing practice; neither uses the TA6 form, so sellers moving across those borders should not assume the same completion undertaking applies.
The bottom line
Alarm codes and keys are covered directly by a specific TA6 question that England and Wales sellers must answer accurately; cameras are not named but can still matter under the form’s disputes question. Answer both honestly, hand over working codes and app access at completion, and treat any decision to remove security equipment as something to disclose early rather than late.