Completion Date in Past When Court Ordered

In my divorce in 2022 the court ordered the transfer of legal title and beneficial interest to my ex of the family home. But they required me to remain on the mortgage until 2024. The result of this is that the mortgage lender did not consent to the title deeds changing and so the title deeds have been out of date since the court order (this was allowed for by the court order).

Now that the time has come to be removed from the mortgage, the TR1 form is being completed but there is a dispute around what date should be used for the "Completion Date". My understanding is that the completion date (question 3) should be the date that the legal title and beneficial interest transferred (i.e. the court order date) and not the date the form is being completed.

I have called the advice line and it does seem to be that the best approach is to put the court order date and include a letter of explanation along with the court order. But I was hoping that someone could give some definitive written direction on this to refer other parties to. To note, I am also slightly concerned that providing a false date of today could lead to capital gains tax and SDLT complications, i.e. having to explain to HMRC the situation. I will note that I have a letter from HMRC confirming that a having zero beneficial interest in a property resolves this - but it's still a headache I'll have to deal with.

Thanks!

Martin - please see our guidance on how to complete form TR1 and panel 3/Date in particular 

Thanks Adam. There isn’t any guidance on this situation. It just says to put the date of completion. Is there a definition of what is meant by completion?

Martin - completion is when you have executed the TR1
In my experience you would date the TR1 after everything else has been 'completed'.

Thanks Adam - so to confirm, completion date is not the date that the legal title & beneficial interest transfers from one party to another. It is the date that the form is completed?

Martin - the legal ownership does not transfer until a form TR1 is completed. That's why you need a form TR1 to transfer the whole of a legal title 
That is why for example, in normal conveyancing re a house sale/purchase, the seller/buyer complete the Transfer but do not date it. The date is added only when the sale/purchase actually 'completes' as in the monies are transferred.
Life events go on all of the time including marriage, divorce and death, but the legal ownership re a property only ever changes when that TR1 is executed and then finally dated. 
 

Thanks Adam - that's at odds with HMCTS. The legal transfer was effected in 2022 by court order.

If I put the date the forms are completed as the "Completion Date" would that be unethical? I don't want to put a date that I know is not a correct representation of the facts.

Sorry for the difficult questions - but I don't want to mislead the Land Registry on when the title transfer and beneficial ownership transferred. If it is standard practice to put a date that the forms that doesn't match this then okay.

Martin - noted and appreciated but when something is 'effected' is one thing but as I mentioned the legal ownership is only transferred when the form TR1 is completed, which includes it's date. Nothing has transferred up until that point and the order does simply that, orders something to happen or be done. A court order is not a transfer of legal ownership of a registered title.
None of your Qs are difficult. Up until now the transfer has not happened and it has not been executed. So you should date it either when that happens or is completed.

Thanks Adam. Spoke with the conveyancer - as my beneficial interest ceased in 2022 it's less of a concern. The Legal title bit is a bit of a tricky one it would seem. But will put the date the TR1 is completed to make it simpler.