Local Land Charge Search

Land and Premises

Frequently Asked Questions regarding Local land charges

• What's it all about?
• Official Local Land Charge Searches
• Drainage and Common Land Enquiries
• Fees
• What about CON 29 Questions?
• How to request a search
• Our Commitment to you
  Personal Search Information

What's it all about?

When you buy a house, your HIP provider / or solicitor will require a Local Authority (LA) search to ensure there are no hidden surprises, such as motorways at the bottom of your garden or outstanding Notices requiring you to take action to remedy an earlier wrong doing.

Official Local Land Charge Searches

The Local Land Charge Section carries out all official searches covered by the Local Land charges Act 1975, guaranteeing comprehensive replies to the official LLC1 and CON29 enquiries.

The Law Society, which regulates solicitors, encourages the use of official searches and considers that alternative personal searches of the statutory register, disclosing only limited information, should only be undertaken with the approval of the client when time does not permit official searches. You are advised to confirm with your HIP provider /or solicitor that an official search has been undertaken and to inspect the Certificate of Official Search (LLC1). Verify with you solicitor the content of your HIP to authenticate the information and ensure it complies with The Home Information Pack (No.2) Regulations 2007.

Your Local Authority Search comprises of :-

LLC1 - the Official Certificate of Search Form. This deals with all the registerable charges, for example financial charges (registered against the property by the local authority), improvement grants, tree preservation orders, conditional planning consents and agreements.

CON29R - the required Enquiries of Local Authorities Form. This deals with issues such as road schemes, the planning history of the property and various notices, which affect the property.

For an Official Local Authority search to be accepted the following must be included:

• If a search is submitted by a solicitor, cheques drawn on the solicitor's client account are requested, made out with the correct amount to Stafford Borough Council.  Clients own cheques are not accepted as a method of payment. Please contact us regarding the fee using the contact details above, or click here to take you to the home page where fees are listed.
• For online search requests please follow the online payment process.
• For online search requests please attach a scaled plan showing the extent of the search area clearly marked and attach using the browse button.
• For postal/DX search requests, two copies of a scaled plan, showing the extent of the search area clearly marked must be attached. 
• For all search requests the correct address of the property or unit forming the search area must be quoted.

DRAINAGE AND COMMON LAND ENQUIRIES 

Drainage and Water Enquiries 

CON29 3.3 (a) and (b) Drainage Agreements and Consents are covered by Stafford Borough Council official search.  All other drainage and additional water supply questions should be directed to Severn Trent Water at:

www.severntrentsearches.com

 

Severn Trent Retail and Utility Services Limited
Severn Trent Searches
PO Box 6187
Nottingham
NG5 1LE

DX : 723860 Nottingham 43
Tel: 0115 962 7269

Severn Trent provide a full Local Authority search with their HIPS service 
www.severntrentsearches.com   

Compiling a HIP yourself click here under construction ( January 2009)

Common Land Enquiries 

Common Land enquiries as from 1 October 2007 are covered by question 22 of CON29O as an optional question - cost £23.00 residential  £30.00 commercial

What about CON 29 O (optional) questions?

The CON 29 O enquiry  form, comprises of 19 optional questions (4 - 22) to the CON29R  required questionnaire and are charged at £23.00 each for residential and £30.00 each for commercial. Examples of the questions found on a CON29O form are given below:

Road proposals by private bodies
Public paths or byways
AdvertisementsNotices: completion/ land maintenance/ pollution/food safety/ hedgerow
Parks and countryside
Pipelines
Mutipule occupation/ noise abatement
Urban development/improvement and enterprise zones
Register of common land and town/ village greens

You may also ask a question that is not on the form. If we can answer the question we will, but we may not have the information you want. There is a charge of £23.00 for every extra question we answer. Examples of extra questions are given below:

Where planning consents have been issued subject to conditions, please confirm that all the conditions have been complied with.
Is the authority aware of, or does it have information in its possession regarding, the presence or possible presence of pollutants or contaminants at the property or any adjacent land?

What about CON 29 R (required) questions?

The CON 29 R enquiries questionnaire, which forms part of the official search, contains many 'Warning' questions, the answers to which you will not find on any of the statutory registers.

Examples of the information only to be found by submitting a CON 29 are given below:-

• Compulsory Purchase Orders
• Proposed Tree Preservation Orders
• Many informal notices under planning and highways laws not found on any register
• Road proposals or schemes (including road widening)
• Proposed enforcement action or breach of conditions notices

How to request a search

There are full instructions on the Local Land Charge Search forms. Your solicitor will have these forms or you can buy them from law stationers.

Both the LLC1 and CON29 forms should be submitted at the same time if answers to both are required.

For examples of the LLC1 and CON29 forms click here  - under construction

Our Commitment to You

We aim to return all official searches within 5 working days and in any case within 10 working days.