HM Land Registry

What’s

going on?

There are over 300 Local Land Charges Registers in England and Wales. This inevitably means over 300 different fees charged (anything form £50 - £200+), many different timescales (3/4 days – 12 weeks +), and a great deal of discrepancy over what is registrable and how the records are presented. And those variations are reflected in how each Council allows access to those publicly owned registers to Regulated Personal Search companies.

This causes a great deal of unnecessary confusion and delays to the conveyancer. As a national search provider, we would love to be able to give our customers one price across the country and one timescale. But we are restricted by the public servants in charge of these national records.

A few years ago, it was decided by the Government of the day that a national register, and a national search provision service with standardised fees and timeframes across the country was needed. Thankfully, the second part was soon ditched when it became apparent what an impossible task that would be. But, the computerisation, or digitisation, of all these 300+ registers began, to at least get the LLC1 part of the search standardised and quicker. There is absolutely no intention to take over the CON29. 

By about 2025 all, or nearly all of the country should be on board with these. The Councils are being digitised in chunks. The first two years only got a dozen Councils completed, then the process has escalated and chunks of 20-30 are being dealt with at a time. 

How much

will it cost?

If the property you are searching against is in an HMLR area, you can get the LLC1 instantly, and for £15.00 anywhere. Personal Search companies can still exercise their rights under the 1975 Local Land Charges Act and view the records for free. 

Nothing

could be

further from

the truth!

We need to be careful about the terminology here. As described in detail elsewhere in The HW Library, the LLC1 form is a “Local Land Charges Search” so, the Land Registry (HMLR) are technically correct in saying that you can get an LLC Search for £15 on line. We can’t argue with that.

But, the industry normal when referring to searches is that the phrase above means the combination of two documents – the LLC1 Register Search and the CON29 Enquiries of District Councils. The two are intertwined and must be treated as one report document ( a “Search”) for the purposes of a good conveyance. I will give examples of why that is so important below. The phrases “search”, “local search”, “personal search”, all assume the inclusion of both parts. 

The SRA (Solicitors Regulatory Authority) maintain a register of approved CPD (Continual Professional Development) providers for the legal industry. Solicitors and Conveyancers must receive their training from such people or their equivalent every year. I am the first, and so far only, person accredited by the SRA to provide training on “Local Land Charges”. During my training sessions, at least two thirds is taken up looking at how the two parts of a “search” cross reference with each other. 



Without both documents in the search, and an eagle eyed search agent examining how they refer to each other, there could be no opportunity for contradictions to be spotted and examined further. e.g. LLC1 has no Highways Agreement, but CON29 says that the highway is not maintained at public expense (adopted). 

Examples of why having only the LLC1 from the Land Registry without a CON29 is a complete waste of time and extremely unprofessional and dangerous:

• LLC1 says no conservation area and no trees preservation order. CON29 says that there is an old and therefore not registered conservation area , thereby all the trees are protected.
• LLC1 says no planning registrations – implying no planning history. CON29 tells you that there were two recent refusals (not registrable) for the very purpose the new buyer is looking to implement.
• LLC1 says the property is not a listed building. CON29 reveals two listed building consents. That’s because some types of works in conservation areas have to be considered as listed building consents.

There are many, many more. My training sessions give far more examples of just why to claim that the £15 certificate is a “search” is very, very misleading.