GUIDES
A property capacity report needs accurate information about the proposed transaction, the person’s circumstances and any impairment. The assessment should show what the person could understand, retain, use or weigh and communicate with support, and explain any causal link to inability.
Author: Nellie Supports Ltd
Publication Date: 15/05/2026
Department for Constitutional Affairs (2007) Mental Capacity Act 2005: Code of Practice. London: The Stationery Office.
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A property capacity report needs accurate information about the proposed transaction, the person’s circumstances and any impairment. The assessment should show what the person could understand, retain, use or weigh and communicate with support, and explain any causal link to inability. This guide covers the relevant evidence, support, process and limits in England and Wales.
A property capacity report stands on evidence from three directions: the transaction, meaning the details, valuation and purpose of the sale, purchase or transfer; the person, meaning their presentation in a structured decision-specific assessment; and the records, meaning the medical and care notes explaining any impairment plus documents showing how the person has handled property and money matters. The report must join the three: what this transaction requires the person to understand, whether they can, and if they cannot, why the impairment is the cause. This guide lists what to gather and how each item is used.
A property capacity report is anchored to a specific transaction, so the evidence starts with the transaction itself: the memorandum of sale or draft transfer, the agreed price or consideration, the estate agent's appraisal or valuation where one exists, and any conditions attached to the deal. Without these, the assessor is testing the person against a hypothetical, and the relevant information, particularly value and proceeds, cannot be put to the person accurately.
Explain the property’s place in the person’s circumstances, the purpose of the transaction, what the proceeds would fund and significant foreseeable needs. Include relevant advice in accessible form. Re Beaney concerns gifts; it should not be used as a universal test for every property sale or purchase.
Relevant health records can help identify an impairment or disturbance and its course. They are not a substitute for functional findings, and a formal diagnosis is not always available or legally necessary. Explain the evidence supporting any impairment and causal link, and identify limitations if records are missing.
Give the person a supported opportunity to explain the actual transaction in their own words. Offer privacy, manage any interested person’s involvement and use communication support where needed. Direct evidence is important, while other reliable records may also be needed. Retention means enough to decide, not perfect recall without aids.
Accounts from family, carers and professionals add context: how the person manages day to day, how they have spoken about the property and the transaction, and how they have changed over time. They must be weighed with care, because those closest to the transaction often have an interest in its outcome, in either direction. Third-party accounts inform the assessment; they do not decide it, and the report should be transparent about whose accounts were taken and what weight they carried.
The report must show, not assert, that the person was supported to make the decision: that the visit was arranged for their best time of day, that the transaction was explained in plain language and in stages, that written or visual aids were used where helpful and that a further visit was offered where presentation fluctuated. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 makes this support a precondition of any finding of incapacity, and its documented presence is one of the clearest markers separating strong reports from vulnerable ones.
Evidence becomes an opinion through the analysis: the relevant information for this transaction identified, the person's ability to understand, retain, use or weigh each element examined against what they actually said and did, and any inability connected causatively to the identified impairment. Each source, from the transaction documents through the records to the visit itself, should be visible in the reasoning, so that the reader can trace every conclusion back to the evidence that supports it.
The report should identify the transaction, material time, evidence, support, findings, causal reasoning and limitations. Its relevance to a conveyancer, lender or court depends on the question and applicable requirements; it does not guarantee acceptance or settle title or legal authority.
Gather the transaction information and relevant records, then connect the person’s supported responses to the correct legal test. State what the opinion covers and any uncertainty rather than suggest that property decisions are always more likely than other decisions to be challenged.
No. A diagnosis does not establish lack of capacity. For a decision under the Mental Capacity Act, consider the relevant information and practicable support, then assess understanding, retention, use or weighing and communication by any means. Any inability must be caused by an impairment of, or disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain. Will-making has its own legal test.
The property details and valuation, the draft transaction documents, medical and care records, any earlier capacity assessments and examples of the person's recent financial decision-making. The more the assessor sees of the real transaction, the more precise and defensible the report.
A fully evidenced formal report matters most where the transaction will be scrutinised: sales funding care fees, transfers within families, Court of Protection matters and any case where relatives disagree about what the person can decide. Can someone have capacity for one decision but not another? Yes. Capacity is decision-specific and time-specific. The assessment must identify each decision and relevant time rather than give a general label.
The related guides below provide further explanation of the decisions, evidence and legal processes discussed here.
Provide the proposed transaction, valuation or price information and relevant health and support records. Explain missing documents and changes in the proposal so that the opinion is confined to the decision actually assessed.
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