Unenrolled deed poll: what it is, and how it differs from an enrolled one

What "unenrolled" means#

It means the deed has not been recorded with the court, and that is all it means. The word makes the ordinary deed poll sound like a lesser version of something, when it is the standard document. GOV.UK's guidance starts with it: if you are 16 or over, you can make a deed poll yourself and start using a new name, called an unenrolled deed poll, and you can use your signed deed poll straight away as proof of your new name.

The National Archives, which holds the enrolment books going back to 1851, puts the proportion plainly: enrolment was optional and cost money, so fewer than 1% of changes of name by deed poll were enrolled. The other 99% changed their names with an unenrolled deed, and organisations have been accepting those deeds for as long as the records go back. Do I need to enrol my deed poll? answers it for your own situation.

Nothing about an unenrolled deed poll is recorded anywhere. There is no register to add it to, no office that approves it, and nobody holds a copy of yours except you and the organisations you send copies to.

The two, side by side#

What enrolment involves#

Enrolment puts a change of name on public record with the King's Bench Division of the High Court, through the Deed Poll Office at the Royal Courts of Justice. GOV.UK sets out the process.

1. Apply online or by post. The fee is £53.05. You must be 18 or over; a 16 or 17 year old who is or has been married or in a civil partnership also enrols as an adult.
2. Provide identity documents: a birth certificate, a valid passport or a certificate of naturalisation, plus supporting documents where they apply, such as a marriage certificate, a spouse's written consent, or a decree absolute or death certificate if you are divorced or widowed. Documents not in English or Welsh need certified translations.
3. Complete three forms. LOC020 is the deed itself, signed in front of 2 witnesses. LOC021 is a statutory declaration and LOC027 an exhibit cover sheet; both are signed in front of a solicitor or another authorised witness.
4. Post the forms to the Deed Poll Office at the Royal Courts of Justice. Forms with mistakes are sent back.
5. Wait. GOV.UK says it can take several months, and that you can ask for an update six months after applying.
6. Publication. A notice of your change of name and your address is published in The Gazette, and you are sent a copy. If you have a strong reason why your details should not be published, you explain it in the application, and the judge may agree to publish only your first name or your surname.

Once approved, the Deed Poll Office seals the deed and posts it back. That sealed deed is the proof of the change.

For a child, a parent or guardian enrols on forms LOC022, LOC023, LOC024 and LOC028, with the agreement of everyone with parental responsibility or a court order, and a child aged 16 or 17 must add a witnessed letter saying they agree. The fee and the timescale are the same.

How to enrol a deed poll takes each form in turn.

Does enrolment make a deed poll more acceptable?#

No. A deed poll is binding because of how it was signed, not because a court has a copy of it (is an unenrolled deed poll legally binding?). HM Passport Office and DVLA accept unenrolled deed polls as evidence of a change of name; so do HMRC, employers, banks and almost everyone else, because for the great majority of people an unenrolled deed is the only document that exists. Some banks accept one only alongside a passport or driving licence in the new name: Lloyds, Halifax, Santander and TSB. Revolut asks for government ID instead, and Chase UK lists only an enrolled deed poll (banks compared; the bank checker sorts your own). Outside banking, the Railcard scheme asks for a copy of an enrolled deed poll or a marriage certificate to change the name on a Railcard.

Enrolment does one thing an unenrolled deed cannot: it creates a public record that a third party can look up, in The Gazette and in the court's enrolment books. That is a real difference, but it is a difference about publicity, not validity. If an organisation has specifically asked you for an enrolled deed poll, enrolment is what it is asking for, and it is worth asking the organisation to confirm exactly that before spending £53.05 and several months on it.

What becomes public, and what stays private#

With an unenrolled deed poll, nothing is published. Your change of name is known to you, your witnesses and the organisations you tell.

With an enrolled deed poll, GOV.UK says the public record includes your address as well as your name. The Gazette is searchable online, and The National Archives notes that every enrolled deed poll has had to be advertised in a Gazette since 1914. For most people that is harmless. For someone who changed their name to be harder to find, it is the opposite of what they want, and it is the strongest reason not to enrol.

What organisations' own rules say#

HM Passport Office publishes guidance to its staff on evidence of a change of name, and it says an unenrolled deed poll or change of name deed, including one made online, must be accepted provided it is signed in the old and new names, signed by at least one witness (who need not be a solicitor or a commissioner for oaths), signed in wet ink, dated, and a contemporaneous document. It adds that staff must not make inappropriate comments about the deed or the company that issued it. DVLA asks for the original document confirming the new name. Neither asks whether the deed was enrolled. If an organisation refuses one anyway, this is what to do.

GOV.UK's general guidance adds a sensible caveat: if you are dealing with an organisation and are not sure what it will accept, ask it. In practice that question is answered by a member of staff who sees unenrolled deed polls every week.

Searching for an enrolled deed poll#

Because enrolment is a public record, an enrolled deed can be found. The Gazette is searchable online by name, and The National Archives holds the enrolment books and indexes up to 2003, with later ones held by the Royal Courts of Justice; a certified copy of an enrolled deed can be requested. An unenrolled deed poll cannot be searched for anywhere, which is either its weakness or its virtue depending on why the name was changed.

How to find a record of a name change goes further, including tracing a relative for family history.

The same change, costed both ways#

Someone changing their surname and ordering ten certified copies from us pays £18.50 for the deed, £15 for the copies and from £2.99 for delivery, has the deed within days, and their name changes the evening they sign it. The same person enrolling pays £53.05 in court fees, arranges two witnesses for form LOC020 and a solicitor for forms LOC021 and LOC027, posts identity documents to the Royal Courts of Justice, and waits several months for the sealed deed, with their name and address then printed in The Gazette. Both end with a valid change of name. Only one ends with a public record. How much it costs to change your name sets out every fee along the way.

Can you enrol a deed poll you already have?#

Not as such. Enrolment is done on the court's own forms: LOC020 is itself the deed that gets enrolled, so you make a new deed in the court's format rather than sending in the one you signed at home. That does not undo the earlier deed. Your name changed on the day you signed it, and the enrolled deed records the same name.

Which should you choose?#

For almost everyone, an unenrolled deed poll, because it does the whole job the day it is signed, costs a fraction of enrolment, and keeps your address off a public register. Enrolment makes sense in two situations: you want a change of name that anyone can look up years later, or an organisation has told you in writing that it needs an enrolled deed. Neither is common.

If you want your deed drafted and checked rather than written from GOV.UK's free template, ours is £18.50, printed with space for two witnesses, posted the same working day, and guaranteed to be accepted. We draft unenrolled deed polls and do not enrol them.