Local land charges and searches

COVID-19 Update

All our offices are currently closed to the public as a result of the current and unprecedented situation.

Advice has been produced by the Government in relation to house moves during the COVID-19 pandemic. This advice states that whilst there is no need to pull out of transactions, we all need to ensure we are following guidance to stay at home and away from others at all times. It also rightly says, the health of individuals and the public must be the priority. Therefore, in many cases, house moves will be difficult at the current time but the council does accept that there are situations where transactions that require a local search to be completed, can still proceed notwithstanding the restrictions currently in place. We have therefore been looking at ways in which we can accommodate searches being undertaken in a manner that complies both with the restrictions and the guidance issued by the Government and Public Health England and our legal obligations to our staff.

The council's local land charges staff are currently working on a rota basis so that social distancing guidelines are properly observed. This will continue until it is safe to do otherwise taking account of Government and Public Health England advice at the relevant time. With immediate effect the following choices for undertaking a local land charges search are available:

• Submit a full (LLC1 and Con29R) official search and fee (£150 and £184 for a standard residential and commercial search respectively) and the information returned will be validated by the council as is normally the case
• Submit an LLC1 and fee (£30 for residential and £40 for commercial) and again, the information returned will be validated by the council as usual. However, if only an official LLC1 is requested, the local land charges section will not provide replies to the Con29R enquiries and, if replies are needed, it is the responsibility of the search requester to contact the relevant service areas within the council direct, or
• If a search agent or intermediary has been appointed, they can send the council the address of the property they wish to search against and provide a plan. The council will then, at no cost, either send the search agent or intermediary a photograph of the Kalamazoo card or TLC print out or both, which will show what is registered against that property in the local land charges registers. However, this is on the strict understanding that the search agent or intermediary needs to validate the information in the same way they would do if they were allowed access to our offices to inspect the registers. In addition, the local land charges section will not provide replies to the Con29R enquiries and, if replies are needed, it is the responsibility of the search agent or intermediary to contact the relevant service areas within the council direct. Again, this is what usually happens.

These arrangements are temporary and will continue only until we are able to again accept appointments to view the local land charges registers. Depending on the extent of any relaxation of the current restrictions, any appointments, when they resume, may also be limited but the council will do what it can to accommodate all requests to inspect the registers at that time.

Unfortunately, whether the search is undertaken by the council or a personal search agent or intermediary, it is important to understand that it may take longer than usual to process because of the need to currently apply staff rota systems and particularly if it is necessary to look at paper files, for example to check the planning history for a property.

The local land charges team provides the following services:

• Maintains the Local Land Charges Register as required under the Local Land Charges Act 1975 and the Rules of 1997
• Provides a comprehensive Local Land Charges search service which involves the completion and compilation of a Local Land Charges certificate and Form CON 29 for house and land purchases or re-mortgages within the whole of the East Riding of Yorkshire
• Provides access to the Register for public inspection, (in particular for personal searches)
• Maintains the Register of Common Land and Village Greens and provide access to the Register for searches and public inspection.

A Local Authority search is required in connection with the purchase of any land/property within the East Riding of Yorkshire. A search is usually instigated by a client's solicitor, but anybody can request one.

If you require information on potentially contaminated land, and other environmental issues, please see our land pollution page.

Below are the total costs to the council for carrying out searches in the last financial year:

LLC1 Actual Costs 2018/19

CON29 Actual Costs 2018/19

LLC1 Estimate 2019/20

CON29 Estimate 2019/20

National Land Information

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is electronically linked to the National Land Information Service (NLIS). LLC1 and CON29 searches can be submitted to Local Land Charges using this service. The NLIS channel providers are:

Searchflow

Email: landcharges@eastriding.gov.uk

Telephone: (01482) 393172