Information on Local Land Charges and searches

Find out about Local Land Charges and searches of the register

Local Land Charge

A Local Land Charge search is usually needed when buying or selling property or land. The search is normally organised by your solicitor or licensed conveyancer on your behalf as part of the house buying process. You can do a search yourself if you wish, please contact the team to find out how.

Charges and restrictions

The council or government can demand payment from new owners of land or property if a ‘charge’ has been placed on it, even if someone else was living there at the time.

There may also be restrictions on the property or land that you must obey. This could be protecting a tree from being removed or conservation rules meaning your property needs to look a certain way.

We keep the register of all the local land charges and restrictions that affect properties in our area.

The Local Land Charges search will show if any of these charges or restrictions are on the property or land you are buying.

The different searches

There are two types of local searches available.

Council Searches (formerly called Official Searches)

These are normally requested by your conveyancer, however, you can apply directly if you wish. The search includes:

  • LLC1: covers charges and restrictions on the property which would be binding on any future owners e.g. tree preservation order, listed building status, conservation areas, planning agreements, enforcement notices, Community Infrastructure Levy notices and various grants.
  • CON29: covers things like planning history and enforcement, building control, environmental health and highways information.
  • CON29’O’: an optional form which covers things like road proposals by private bodies, advertisements, houses in multiple occupation, and common land.

The searches are completed by our award-winning Local Land Charges team and are usually delivered to your conveyancer within two working days of us receiving the request. These searches are covered by professional indemnity insurance.

To request an Official Search please contact our award-winning team.

Regulated Searches (formerly called Personal Searches)

These are usually carried out by private search companies who provide their own form of a local search combining the information contained in the same forms as the Council Search. To compile this information companies use public registers like the Local Land Charges Register and other records or data sets.

As these searches are not completed by us we cannot advise on timescales. We would advise you or your conveyancer to speak to the private search company to find out how long the search will take.

You also have the right to search the register yourself. There is no fee for this, and you can find out more information on our Personal Search page.

Requesting a search

To request an Official Search please contact our award-winning team. We aim to complete any search request within two working days. All of our searches are covered by professional indemnity insurance.

You have the right to search the register yourself. There is no fee for this, and you can find out more information on our Personal Search page.

Planning conditions

You are strongly advised to check if planning obligations and conditions have been complied with on any new dwelling/development. The Planning department actively monitor condition and obligation compliance and inform the Local Land Charges team where a note needs to be recorded, however not all outstanding issues will necessarily have been identified.

Therefore, it is suggested you write to planning@arun.gov.uk to check if any or all section 106 obligations have been discharged. A search of the Local Land Charges Register may reveal clear commentary that a section 106 agreement has been fully complied with, however, it is also recommended that a full official Local Authority Search is completed to pick up any other warnings revealed on the CON29 response. Further information can be found on our Land Charges information page.

You can check yourself if planning conditions have been discharged (on applications determined after 2010) by using our planning application search. To do this you can: 

  • enter the planning application reference
  • click on ‘Other Applications on site’ to check for ‘Planning Approval of Conds’ type applications (They are suffixed with DOC (For Discharge of Conditions).

Alternatively, you may request we do the condition check for you but there is a charge for this. Please email planning@arun.gov.uk for more information.