Searches must be carried out from the
Local Authority to be included in the Home Information Pack (HIP). The Home Information Pack Regulations require a number
of questions to be covered and these are listed in the Schedule 10 part 2 of the Regulations.
These searches are conducted by a local agent commissioned. They must request permission to search the
land charges register and ask to view further information held by several council departments. They then manually
record their findings. To do this the search agent is required to book the visit in advance with the relevant authority and
may take several visits to aquire the full information. They then process the written information into an electronic format
using a computer, it is then forwarded back to the HIP provider. This process
in usually slower.
Provides the same information but the gathering of information is carried out by a Local Authority
officer. The request and reply is in a format approved by the Law Society and as such is acceptable to conveyancer’s in its original form. The authority has no delay in obtaining the documents.
The timescale for this process is currently 3 days (Rugby Borough Council official Information)
- NB: There have been widespread reports of Solicitors electing to
commission another ‘Official’ search in order to carry out conveyancing, at their client’s expense, when
only a personal search has been made available. If this happens not only will it cost the buyer a further fee, but it could
well add a delay in conveyancing of 2 weeks or more.
