News and General  14th January 2025

We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! 

Personal Searches

Completed Personal Searches are a combination of data obtained from different Council departments, specifically; Building, Highways, Land Charges and Planning. Some data is available online, other information needs sending to us by the Council, and in certain situations we need to visit the Council's offices to retrieve the data we need.... and Councils can make search agents wait for available appointment slots. ie. all search firms are in the same boat (so to speak). 

Official Search Prices

There are around 350 Local Authorities in England and Wales, each with different fees for CON29R, LLC and the 19 CON29O optional questions. Very few of these Local Authorities notify us prior to increasing their fees and there is no central data base for this. While we endeavour to keep our prices up to date, there maybe instances where an Official search has increased. If this is the case, we will contact you before confirming the order.

The current average turnaround times (over the past 90 days) for Personal Local Searches is 20 calendar days. Please note, this can vary depending on individual Local Authorities and their ability to return the data we need. Details of councils where we're experiencing delays are listed below:

Council News. 

Braintree Council are experiencing delays in returning Personal and Official Local Searches due to staff shortages.

Cannock Chase Council have increased their turn around time to 35 working days.

Colchester Council are experiencing delays following the scheduled essential maintenance on their systems. We can offer search delay and no search indemnities; to discuss these options please contact Emily at indemnities@legalbrokers.com for further information.

Daventry Council are experiencing a huge back log with local searches and are advising an approximate 30 working day turnaround time.

East Staffordshire have increased to a 45 working day turnaround time for Personal and Official Local Searches due to experiencing issues beyond their control. They are advising chases only be sent after this time has passed. 

Epsom and Ewell have increased their turnaround time for Official Searches to 15 working days.

Hackney are not accepting "full" Local Search requests at present. There is still the option of a Partial Search, to discuss this further email kath@legalbrokers.com. Alternatively, we  can offer a Search Delay Indemnity Policy for £30 plus IPT, please contact indemnities@legalbrokers.com for further information.

LB of Camden are currently working with HMLR to move their data to the central register, this has resulted in delays of up to 8 weeks in returning ALL searches.

LB of Hounslow has a new building control system which has not ported the data from their old database correctly. Searches cannot be complete until the fixes on the new database have been completed. At present, they are not able to advise when this might be. We can offer search delay and no search indemnities; to discuss these options please contact Emily via indemnities@legalbrokers.com for further information.

LB or Richmond upon Thames have issued the following statement; "Local land charges system changes - We are upgrading our system, and some services will be unavailable whilst we complete the work. From mid until end of January you will be unable to request a local land charges search. We will not be processing any requests during this period. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. More details will be posted shortly."

Turn around times for both Local and Official Searches are likely to be heaviy impacted during both the system downtime and while the council clear the resulting backlog. 

Manchester are gradually speeding up the return time of search requests.

Oldham Council have resolved software issues they were experiencing, and we are currently finding they are returning information earlier than expected. However, we are expecting their turnaround time to increase due to their upcoming migration to the Land Registry. We will continue to monitor the situation.

Rushcliffe Council There are currently delays with Rushcliffe council returning the Land Charges information required for Personal Local Searches.

Stevenage Council Local Land Charges Team was operating under limited capacity over the months of October and November. Any searches received from 16th September were significantly impacted; the turnaround time for all searches is still approximately 25 working days.

St Helens Council are advising all search requests are dealt with within 6 weeks. However, the Christmas shut down at the council has further delayed them returning the search information to us. As a result, searches submitted in December are not expected back until February 2025.

Stratford-On-Avon are expreriencing delays in returning Official Local searches due to a technical issue in the Highways Department.

Stoke-on-Trent have reduced their return time for Official Searches from 35 working days down to 20 working days

St Albans are experiencing delays of up to 25 days in returning Personal Searches.

Sunderland Council have advised that, due to circumstances beyond their control, they are unable to return any personal searches results week commencing 8th July

Tameside Council Official Searches are currently taking 5-6 weeks to be returned. 

Test Valley are currently quoting 30 working day turnaround time for all searches and that they are currently working through a backlog.

Tonbridge and Malling are experiencing delays returning Local searches due to recent annual leave within the Land Charges Department.

Walsall Council are taking longer than usual to return results, turnaround time has increased to approximately 40 working days

New Builds. In some circumstances the development and properties will be registered with the Land Registry (which is where our data comes from) and the site will be able to identify each property. If the Land Registry hasn't got the data we'll need a Plot plan, Location plan, and Development plan. ie. we need to find the property with reference to existing roads and infrastructure. 

In some circumstances it may be quicker to order an Official Search rather than a Personal Search. Officials are generally more expensive, but the Council may offer a faster turnaround time. Please email kath@legalbrokers.com if you have an urgent search requirement.

We understand that there are unfortunately times that searches have to be cancelled. To make sure your request is received and dealt with promptly, please send all cancellation requests and queries to searches@legalbrokers.com as this email is monitored daily by all members of staff.

Kind Regards

Stacey Armitage

Searches Department

Tel: 0345 603 0708