What is a Local Land Charge Search?
Why do you need a search?
When buying a property or piece of land, your solicitor will submit a local search request to us. A local search protects the purchaser against unknowingly inheriting land charges, prohibitions held against the property or land and will warn of future proposals so you are aware of any charges or responsibilities you will be taking on when you exchange contracts.
Not having this information prior to buying could have future consequences.
The word charge can mean any outstanding financial claim, any restrictions, decisions or information which may affect a particular property or parcel of land. We will investigate and bring all the information together in the form of a local authority search. The information is collected from different council departments including planning and building control, environmental services and highways services.
What type of searches can you do?
There are 2 types of searches that can be performed. They are :
- Official Local Authority Search
- Personal Search under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004
What reports can I obtain as part of an Official Local Authority Search?
Search reports provide important information about a property, which is for the benefit of the buyer. The reports that make up a local land charges search are:
- Official compiled LLC1 report
This report can only be produced and certified by us and provides information held in the Local Land Charge Register. This holds information about restrictions and prohibitions on land or property, and financial charges already held against property or land. It is important to be aware that all charges are binding on successive owners.
- Official compiled CON29 (enquiries of the local authority 2016)
This report is made up of approximately 60 enquiries and provides important warning information about the property or land such as. recent statutory notices raised against a property that may later incur financial charges, Compulsory Purchase Orders, all building regulation information or road proposals and traffic schemes that affect the property. It is only the complete CON29 that will warn a purchaser of newly raised charges and proposals.
- Official compiled CON29O (enquiries of the local authority 2016)
This report is made up of approximately 19 optional enquiries and provides you with additional information if requested, such as if your property is included in common land, is affected by a public footpath or has been served with any noise abatement orders
A full local land charges search report consists of two parts, the LLC1 and the CON29. Each of these reports LLC1, CON29 and CON29O can be requested in isolation.
We are not the only providers of local search reports. There are other private organisations who are able to provide a similar service and these can be found on the internet.
Personal Search
The alternative to an official local authority search is often referred to as a personal search. A personal search can be conducted by anyone, but does not bear the official stamp of the council and is therefore not an official local authority search.
What is a Personal Search?
A personal search is a personal inspection of all the data required to compile a property search enquiry. Personal searches are usually carried out by a private search company, who use the information as part of their own property search and may charge you a fee for providing this service. If a private search company undertakes your search and you need further explanations from the information provided, you will have to go back to that search company, as the authority’s land charges staff will not be able to assist you. It is possible to carry out a personal inspection, free of charge, of environmental information required to answer a Local Land Charge Search under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Please note that it is your responsibility to locate the information you require and interpret it for your purposes. Our staff cannot advise on what records should be revealed or where the records should be shown in relation to the CON29 form or for any other purpose.
You may make a request under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) for data that would be used to answer property search enquires referred to in LLC1 and Con29/O Forms. You may submit an EIR request to this authority by email.
We would aim to return your requested information to you as soon as possible however please be aware that we are permitted to take up to a maximum of 20 working days. There is no charge for this service.
Please be aware that a request made under EIR is a request for information only. We will not provide specific responses to enquiries, and we will not interpret information for you. We will not be liable for how you interpret or use that information subsequently.