Property Searches

What are property searches?

Searches are standard forms of questions which are sent to various authorities to provide you with more information about the property you plan to purchase.  The authorities include local councils, the Environment Agency and coal and water authorities.

Searches provide crucial information relating to the property, for example

• Is the road adopted?
• Are there any mineshafts in the area?
• Is the area a higher flood risk?
• Are there any plans for “Fracking” in the area?

The searches are only intended to cover legal aspects of the purchase.  They are searches of public records and not an inspection of the physical state of the property.  The physical inspection is carried out in a survey.

Do I actually need searches?

If you are a cash buyer, then technically the answer is no.  If this is the case, then you are only using your money to purchase the property and so if you wish to take the risk not to have searches done then this is your choice.  Our strong advice is that searches should be carried out in every case.

Often the decision not to get a search is based on buying on a tight budget, but this may cost much more in the long-term. You should make informed decisions with all of the facts available. Your property will probably be one of the most expensive things you will purchase in your life. Purchasing a comprehensive search pack gives peace of mind and is a good investment.

If you are having a mortgage then the mortgage lender will insist that all relevant searches are carried out as they need to know their loan over the property is properly protected.  However, the searches have to be carried out at your expense.

What searches do I need?

Mortgage lenders require us as solicitors to carry out “any searches which may be appropriate to the particular property, taking into account its locality and other features”.  We therefore carry out an initial check to see what searches are recommended.

We use the services of Legal Support Services (Northern) Limited which does two things to manage the search process. Firstly, it arranges a personal search of the key registers rather than relying on the relevant authority to supply the answers; secondly, it arranges insurance against the consequences of there being any adverse entries on any of the registers. In those cases, we do not advise a full search and this is a satisfactory and safe way to proceed.

Please note that the following mortgage lenders will not accept the type of personal local authority search that we carry out. If you are having or considering having a loan from any of the following lenders please notify your conveyancer as a matter of urgency.  We will then have to arrange for an official local authority search to be carried out which in most cases takes longer and will incur a higher fee.  We will provide full information of any cost implications when this is available.

The list of current lenders is as follows:

Banks and Clients Plc, Buckinghamshire Building Society, DB UK Bank Ltd., Fleet Mortgages, Leek United Building Society, Loughborough Building Society, Mortgage Agency Services, Nedbank Private Wealth Ltd., New Street Mortgages, Paragon Mortgages Ltd., Paratus AMC Ltd., Parity Trust, Penrith Building Society, Pepper Home Loans, Platform, Precise Mortgages, State Bank of India UK and Stafford Railway Building Society.

What searches are recommended?

We always recommend four main searches as a minimum.

Local Authority search (Included in Basic and Premium Search Packs)

This searches the Local Authority’s records for such things as planning issues, road works and if the property is listed or in a conservation area. For example, if the property is in a conservation area, there may be restrictions on extensions. If there was a road widening scheme nearby this might change your mind about the purchase.

Coal mining (Included in Basic and Premium Search Packs)

We will carry out a risk screening of the property to see if the property is considered to be at risk of historic coal mining. If recommended we will carry out a Coal Authority Search which will show if there has been any past or any future plans for mining under the property. It will also show if there are any mine shafts or history of subsidence problems

Water and drainage search (Included in Premium Search Pack)

This search will confirm if the property is connected to public sewer, septic tank or other private systems. It will also show if it is connected to a public or private water supply. It will show if the property is close to or affected by water mains or public sewers as this can be important if you intend to extend the property.

Environmental search (Included in Premium Search Pack)

This looks at past uses of the land to try and discover if it has been used for a purpose which could have contaminated the land. It would obviously give you concerns if you are living on land which could be contaminated. The other problem is that you could potentially have to pay the cost of clean-up. The search will also give information on issues such as flooding.

Upgrade to Premium Plus and receive the additional benefit of:

• Ground Stability – for information on sinkholes and mining other than coal
• Energy and Infrastructure – for information on Fracking, Wind and Solar Farms

Chancel repair indemnity (Included in all Search Packs)

If land is subject to chancel repair liability the owner has to pay towards repairs of the chancel of a medieval church. Although this dates back to medieval law it could still attach to the property you are buying.

One of the difficulties in assessing whether the liability affects the land is that the land to which it attaches will not necessarily be close to the church. A simple check to see whether the property is near a medieval church is not sufficient and it is not safe to assume that properties in urban areas will necessarily be free from this liability.

Chancel Repair Liability searches can be done but even then, the records are incomplete and insurance may still be necessary. If a search gave a positive result, then it is unlikely that insurance would be available. It had been hoped that the situation would change on the 13th October 2013 after a change in the law where the right to demand repair costs was then only enforceable against an owner of land if it had been protected on the title deeds. However, the Land Registry have cast some doubt on this and have continued to register chancel repair notices.

For this reason, we have arranged a no search chancel repair liability block policy for our clients. The block policy saves time and is cost effective. It provides you with protection for the next 25 years up to the maximum value of the property. It also protects any mortgage lender and subsequent buyers of the property.

The cost of the policy is included in the search package you have included.

Additional searches

We might sometimes recommend area specific searches are required. We will discuss this with you at the time if we believe they are necessary. Such searches can include Cornish Tin Mining, Cheshire Brine, Common Land searches or additional planning alerts.

Search options

We offer three different search packages which contain different combinations of searches. We recommend the Premium Plus search which contains all searches plus additional detailed information. Whilst we hope the searches do not reveal any problems, we cannot guarantee this unless the searches are carried out.

Basic	Premium	Premium Plus RECOMMENDED
Local Authority Coal Mining Chancel Repair Indemnity	Local Authority Coal Mining Drainage/Water Chancel Repair Indemnity Environmental (Including Flood Information)	Local Authority Coal Mining Drainage/Water Chancel Repair Indemnity Environmental (Including Flood Information, Ground Stability, Energy and Infrastructure Reports)
£255	£325	£355

We will order searches from a number of different sources including Infotrack Ltd, relevant Local Authorities, The Coal Authority and Legal Support Services (Northern) Ltd (LSS) which you should be aware is a company in which some Directors of this company have an interest. In order to speed up some aspects of the conveyancing transaction, we have negotiated Chancel Repair Liability Insurance policies which will insure potential liability for Chancel Repair, for more information see www.chancel.org.uk. These policies are issued by market specialists, Stewart Title Ltd. They may or may not be the cheapest or best deals available but in our opinion these policies provide you with a level of cover that will meet your reasonable needs.  This avoids any future liability on your part for Chancel Repair.

The cost of each option covers the cost of ordering the searches and chancel repair insurance together with our advice on their contents. In addition to searches we can in certain circumstances also arrange insurance for you to cover losses in the event that the land you are purchasing has unrecorded risks of contamination.

Alternatively we can advise you which searches are mandatory or recommended when we receive and confirm your formal instructions to proceed. 

In the absence of any specific request, we will assume that you are content for LSS to request conveyancing searches on your behalf from such providers that they consider appropriate. In the event that any third party search provider’s search results prove to be inaccurate, your recourse would be via their insurance cover, LSS and Banner Jones Solicitors will not accept any liability for the information provided by them.