Land Registry Searches for all of the UK and Ireland

All of the local authorities throughout England and Wales have different response times. Many have digitised their records but some have not. With some local authorities we can receive the search results the same day; others can take a week or more. Over the next 12 months their response times will improve as they prepare for e-conveyancing, which means that the speed of our searches will improve.

Land Registry searches are concerned with your title deeds. Local Land Charge searches relate to other matters, such as proposed compulsory purchase orders, tree preservation orders, local financial charges, improvement grants, etc. Environmental Searches relate to matters affecting the environmental around your property, such as Water & Drainage, Coal Mining, Common Land, etc. Your mortgagee will always insist on obtaining a Local Authority search before granting a mortgage because the matters revealed therein may substantially affect the value of the property. The mortgagee will normally also insist on several of the Environmental Searches.

Whenever you purchase or sell a house. The Regulations governing Home Information Packs (HIPs) require the vendor to provide a Local Authority Search and certain other searches. He needs to obtain this before or when instructing his selling agent. For more information on HIPs please click here.

The many different Environmental Searches are described in detail on our Environmental Search page, which can be accessed from the blue menu on our Home Page, or by clicking here..

Each local authority and Environmental Agency decides itself on what fee to charge. HM Land Registry can only charge at the fee rate set by statute.