It is important that an enquiry of Local Authority must be made for every transaction by submitting a form (CON29R) to the concerned unitary, district, or London Borough Council where the property is located. If the search is made by postal mail, two copies of the form are required. It is now possible to make electronic requests for search applications at certain local authority offices.
Sometimes, the local authority in charge of the search may ask for a plan of the property even if the place is easily identifiable through its post code. The requisite fees for a search, varies from one local authority to another.
While, enquiries raised through form CON29R are general and relevant to every transaction, enquiries revealed by CON29O are specialised in nature and it is up to the conveyancing solicitor to decide on the questions that may be relevant to a particular transaction. These enquiries must be raised by ticking the appropriate box placed against the relevant question number at the foot of the front page of the search form. A separate fee is chargeable for every enquiry raised through CON29RO.
With respect to enquiries that deal with matters not mentioned in the printed questions, these should be typed separately on a sheet of paper. A duplicate copy of this sheet should be submitted along with the search application. Needless to say, extra fees are applicable for these additional questions.
What the searches reveal
Information revealed by a search enquiry at the local authority is vast enough to help a buyer build a complete picture about the property including the price at which it can be purchased. He can come to a conclusion about going ahead or withdrawing from the deal. The local authority can provide immense amount of information due to the fact that they keep records of huge quantity of information relating to a number of different matters; even those that extend beyond the limited confines of the local land charges register. For instance, information about the following may be revealed through CON29R enquiries:
a) Enquiry 1: This enquiry reveals information about planning consents and building regulations and approvals; whether such consents have been provided, declined, or is pending. If planning consent was refused, the buyer should ask the seller to produce copies so as to determine if his proposed use of the property would not be in violation of the authorised use, and there are no conditions in the planning permission which might interfere with that use.
b) Enquiry 2: This enquiry reveals the status of roads that serve the property; whether they are maintained at public expense or if the prospective buyer would have to pay the cost for its maintenance. Even if the local authority later decides to adopt it, the buyer would be liable for the cost of bringing them up to standard.
c) Enquiries 3.4 and 3.5: This enquiry reveals if new roads or railway projects are proposed within 200 metres of the property. This may be cause disturbance to the new owner.
d) Enquiries 3.6: This enquiry reveals if there are plans for permanently stopping roads and footpaths, or introduction of traffic schemes by way of one-way streets, parking restrictions etc.
e) Enquiries 3.9: This enquiry reveals if planning enforcement and stop notices were served on the property for breach of planning control. If such notices were served, what is their status- were they complied with?
f) Enquiry 3.11: This enquiry reveals if compulsory purchase orders are proposed in the locality.
g) Enquiry 3.12: This enquiry reveals if notices were served on the seller with respect to remediation of contaminated land. If such a notice was served, it is possible that the prospective buyer may have to bear costs for clean-up after the purchase.
Enquiries revealed through CON29O include:
a) Enquiry 5: This enquiry reveals whether the property intended to be purchased is crossed by a public path or bridleway. If this is the case, the owner of the property can neither deny any access to the public, nor build over the path or bridleway unless it is diverted through a long drawn statutory procedure.
b) Enquiry 19: This enquiry reveals if environmental or pollution notices were served on the property.
c) Enquiry 22: This enquiry reveals if the property or the land abutting it is registered as a common land or village green under the Common Registration Act 1965.
Information revealed through these searches should be carefully considered by the buyer’s conveyancer, who should advise their clients accordingly. The solicitor should also consider about the issues that were not revealed, but expects the same. For instance, if a planning permission was not revealed, the buyer’s conveyancing solicitor should consider about how the property is officially authorised to be used, and if any work was carried on it, why is it that no building regulation consent was revealed during the search.
But such enquiries (both LLC1 and CON29) only reveal issues that directly affect the land, other issues related to the adjoining land that may indirectly affect the use of the property are not revealed. Thus, if a super market is proposed on a property adjacent to the house, the search enquiry will not reveal such information. Except for proposed road and railway projects, no other proposed projects within 200 metres of the property are revealed. Even in the case of road and railway projects, if such a project is planned 300 metres away from the property, the enquiry will not reveal anything. However, if any search enquiry does not reveal any particular information, they are more than likely to cause disturbance to the new owner. This should be clearly explained to the buyer.
Liability
A local authority can be sued for negligence due to an error in reply for printed enquiries. Such liability is however subject to the exclusion clause printed on the front sheet of the search application.
Difference between forms LLC1 and CN29R/O
The three searches viz. LLC1, CON29R, and CON29O are sent to the same authority and with just one cheque as fees for all the three. Often LLC1 and CON29R/O are done simultaneously and hence together referred to as ‘local search’. But the three are totally distinct with clear functions. Some of the differences include:
a) Form LLC1 reveals matters that fall within the definition of the local land charge. But Form CON29R/O includes a wide range of subjects including applications made for planning permissions, those that were refused, etc. But examples for enquiries revealed under LLC1 include planning permissions that were granted etc.
b) The liability of the local authority also changes with respect to each of these enquiries. For instance, in the case of CON29R/O enquiries, negligence has to be proved, but such proof is not required in the case of LLC1 search.
c) While LLC1 reveals information provided by the register at the moment that the search is requested, CON29R/O reveals information that affects the property in the past as well as the future. For example, planning application history, compulsory purchase order, etc. that is pending but not yet registered as a local land charge is revealed through CON29R/O.
Personal searches
It is common for local searches and enquiries to be delayed; hence it has now become an accepted practice to appoint personal search providers. Such agents personally visit the offices of the appropriate local authority for a fee and make such searches personally.
Organisations like OneSearch Direct also provide such services, albeit with a difference. They maintain their own database of information that would be revealed by a local search, and provide them for a fee.
But when personal searches are conducted instead of official searches, the mortgage lender advancing money on security of the property must be convinced. Some mortgage lenders do not accept such personal searches or do so at the solicitor’s risk. Thus, it is the duty of the conveyancing solicitor to ensure that the search is conducted by a properly qualified person and that the results are backed by adequate insurance.
To ensure that the consumer is protected against negligent searches, the Council of Property Search Organisations (COPSO) has laid down a Search Code. Such a code is monitored and enforced through an independent Property Codes Compliance Board.
Photo courtesy: longhorndave
