Land Charges
What is a land charge search?
When property or land is purchased or leased,
part of the conveyancing process will be for a land search to be
undertaken. A land search is divided into two parts:
- part 1: LLC1 form - (Official Certificate of Search)
- part 2: CON29 form - (Enquiries to the Local Authority)
The forms are forwarded to the Council to
undertake the search. The LLC1 form is used to search the Register
of Local Land Charges and reveals details of any 'charge' (ie.
registrations) on the property.
For example: tree preservation orders,
conservation areas, planning consents and agreements, financial
charges, highway agreements, housing grants, enforcement notices
and notices served under the public health and building acts are
revealed.
The CON29 form deals with two types of enquiries - standard and
optional. Standard enquiries reveal information on road proposals
(within 200 metres of the site), road maintenance, planning history
and outstanding statutory notices. Optional enquiries reveal
information on public paths and byways, road proposals by private
bodies, environmental and pollution notices.
It is important to note that drainage enquiries are undertaken by
Thames Water.
Additional information
When carrying out a land search, the
information revealed relates to the property or land you are
proposing to purchase. It does not give information about adjoining
land or properties. If you require further information on the site
being searched or the adjoining property or land, you should ask
your solicitor to make the relevant enquiry. An additional fee is
payable for this service.
Personal searches - to carry out a search in
person
Inspection of the Local Land Charges Register
may be undertaken free of charge. Please note that no information
will be given in writing and therefore it is the responsibility of
the person inspecting the Register to make their own notes.
Alternatively, the land charges section offers an enhanced service
at a fee of £10 which includes the provision of a printed Schedule
of Register entries. Please also note that this is not a full
search and may be not be acceptable to mortgage
lenders. From April 2009 following the availability
of access to the Council's property records by personal searches, a
scale of fees and charges has been prepared which is detailed
below. See link to CON29R Order Form together with an
Information note for those wishing to access the Council's
property records in person.
Fees and charges - as from 1 May 2010
LLC1/CON29R (Full Search)
One parcel of land:
Residential/Commercial
£100
Each additional parcel (no
maximum)
£15
Part 2 Enquiries
CON29O Printed Enquiries
(Questions 4-21
incl) £10
per enquiry
Common Land Enquiry (question
22)
£14
Each additional written
enquiry £15
LLC1 Only Search
Whole or part of the
Register £25
Each additional parcel (no
maximum)
£5
Under the Local Authorities (England) (Charges for Property
Searches) Regulations 2008 the Council is required to operate its
land charges service on a cost-neutral basis whereby the estimated
cost of granting access to the Council's property records is met by
an estimate of the number of requests for access likely to be
received. From this the unit charge for access to the records
is calculated. In 2010/11 the estimate of the likely cost of
granting access to property records is £103,816 and the estimated
number of requests is 1,000. The scale of charges is set out
above. In the event of an over estimate or under estimate in
any one year leading to a surplus or deficit the unit charge will
be adjusted over the course of the following two financial years to
achieve neutrality.
For the 2009/10 financial year the total cost of the
rechargeable element of the land charges service was
£102,935. There were 930 access requests in 2009/10
generating income of £113,752. The surplus of income over
expenditure in 2009/10 was therefore £10,817.
Our commitment to customer service
The Council recognises the importance of the
land search to the conveyance process, and the need to turnaround
searches as quickly as possible. Therefore, the Council has set
itself a target of processing all searches in an average of three
days.
For further information, contact the local land charges team
at:-
Borough Offices, Bishops' College, Churchgate,
Cheshunt, Herts, EN8 9XQ
Telephone 01992 785552 or email landcharges@broxbourne.gov.uk