Conveyancing Searches 

News and General 23rd October 2026

The Lender Check system is live and costs £7.50 + VAT per report. The system sweeps across all the lenders 4 times a day and fee earners get to run 5 checks on each property within the single fee. 

If anyone saw the worldwide AI / PHP / virus issue on the BBC over the last couple of days.... well that's lead to a delay in the launch of the Report on Title system. That said we're able to run demo's if that's of interest. The system is AI powered and the cost is £30 + VAT per report - and the plan is to give out "freebies" so Fee Earners can try the system and provide feedback. 

JH 

Regulated Conveyancing Searches;

Completed Regulated 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;

Please contact us to double check pricing. 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.

The current average turnaround times (over the past 90 days) for Personal Local Searches is 9 working 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:

Bracknell Forest are experiencing considerable delays due to issues with their new system, they are currently unable to process searches and will be working through the back log as soon as possible.

Corby are now returning data for personal searches in 15-20 working days

Coventry City Council turnaround for Personal Searches is back down to 10 working days

Fenland District Council are experiencing delays in returning personal searches data. Currently returning the data in approximately 30 working days

Flintshire Following months of delays in returning data for personal searches, Flintshire have put process in place to reduce the turnaround time to more acceptable levels of 25 - 30 working days and are working to improve this further.

Fylde Borough Council are moving their Land Charges to HM Land Registry. This is due to go live on 23rd November 2026. The last day Fylde are accepting Land Charges requests is 6th November 2026, so this may cause a slight delay until the Land Charges go live on HM Land Registry on 23rd November.

Gloucester City have reduced their turnaround time for personal search data to 12 working days

Hackney are not accepting "full" Personal Local Search requests at present. We can offer a Search Delay Indemnity Policy for £30 plus IPT, please contact indemnities@legalbrokers.com for further information.

As of 27th July 2026, Hackney are now able to provide full Official Searches, if you would like to enquire about the price of swapping the personal local search in your bundle for an official search, please email searches@legalbrokers.com.

Update - Hackney are hoping to be able to provide full personal search data from 16th November 2026

Islington Council have increased their turnaround time to 30 working days for personal and official searches

London Borough of Hillingdon have reduce their turnaround time to around 15 working days for personal searches

Melton are experiencing delays in returning information for personal searches, their turnaround time has increased to 30 working days

Norfolk Councils all have a current turn around time of 20 working days, this includes Broadland, South Norfolk, Norwich and Kings Lynn.

Oxford have experienced IT issues recently which has delayed returning information for personal searches by about a week.

Reading Following months of delays with obtaining building control, Reading have now completed the update on their Building Control system which should reduce the turnaround time for personal searches.

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.

St Helens have now successfully migrated their Land Charges data to HMLR. We have reduced our turnaround time for Personal Local Searches with this council to 2 weeks.   

Vale of White Horse have advised that their new Land Charges system has now launched, however there will be a delay in processing searches due to the backlog of requests. They anticipate returning searches 20 working days from the date of acceptance. 

Walsall Council are gradually speeding up and turn around time has reduced from 30 working days to 12 working days. 

Wirral Council are moving their Land Charges to HM Land Registry. This is due to go live on 12th November 2026. The last day Wirral are accepting Land Charges requests is 21st October 2026, so this may cause a slight delay until the Land Charges go live on HM Land Registry on 12th November.

Wiltshire have reduced their turnaround time down to 15 working days for personal searches

Wokingham Borough Council, are due to transfer their Land Charges to HM Land Registry on 10th November 2026. The last day the council will accept Land Charges requests is close of business on 5th November 2026 his may cause a slight delay until the Land Charges go live on HM Land Registry on 10th November.

Wrexham are now returning data for personal searches in around 15 working days

York Council have advised they are experiencing staff shortages within the Land Charges Team which is leading to delays in search turnaround times and responses to queries. This is expected to continue over the next few months

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