Local Land Charges

 

Details of local authority searches and land charges.

Local Land Charges
Development House
Lombard Street
West Bromwich
B70 8RU

DX 14609 West Bromwich.

Telephone: 0121 569 3207/8 0121 569 3256/7
Fax: 0121 569 3241
Email: angela_price@sandwell.gov.uk

Reception Opening hours: Monday - Thursday 8.30am - 5.30pm. Friday 8.30am - 5.00pm.
Online Appointment Book  Operating times for Personal Searches 9.00am - 5.00pm Monday to Friday.  (For more information go to our Personal Searches section below.)

You can apply online for your Local Authority Search simply by clicking the link below. It is quick and easy to use and we will email your completed search back to you as soon as we are in receipt of your payment. 

If your request is to form part of the Home Imformation Pack, then you need to provide the following extra information:

  1. Name of Vendor
  2. Name of Estate Agent
  3. Name of HIP provides, and finally
  4. Name of solicitor/conveyancer

If you wish to check if your site is within the jurisdiction of Sandwell, you can carry out a search via our Public Access Property Search.

What's it all about?
Official Local Land Charge Searches
Water Searches
Fees
Personal searches
What about CON 29 Questions?
Our Commitment to You

What's it all about?

When you buy a house, your solicitor will make a search of the Council's records to ensure there are no hidden surprises, such as motorways at the bottom of your garden or outstanding Notices requiring you to take action to remedy an earlier wrong doing.

Official Local Land Charge Searches

The Local Land Charge Section carries out all official searches covered by the Local Land Charges Act 1975, guaranteeing comprehensive replies to the official LLC1 and CON29 enquiries.

Please note that all full residential Local Authority Searches (LLC1 and Con29) deposited will receive a Limestone report, copies of Approved Town Planning Decision Notices, Tree Preservation Order, Listed Building, Conservation Area Plans, Building Regulation Approval Notices and Completion Certificates free of charge.

The Law Society, which regulates solicitors, encourages the use of official searches and considers that alternative personal searches of the statutory register, disclosing only limited information, should only be undertaken with the approval of the client when time does not permit official searches. You are advised to confirm with your solicitor that an official search has been undertaken and to inspect the Certificate of Official Search.

Water Searches

Water Searches, including sewers and drainage, are conducted by Severn Trent Water Ltd.. Ring them on 0115 962 7269 to arrange a search. Note: The Water Company will levy a separate charge for this service.

Fees (as of 1.7.2007)

Guaranteed Quantity Bulk Discount

As of 1st July 2007, if you submit 25 or more Local Authority Residential Searches within one calendar month, we will be able to offer you a discount price of £85.00 per search deposited. 

If you are interested in taking up this offer, please contact us for further details.

Telephone: 0121 569 3207/8 0121 569 3256/7
Fax: 0121 569 3241
Email: angela_price@sandwell.gov.uk

LLC1 only£6.00
Basic Search of Residential Property
(this includes the LLC1 and Part 1 enquiries on Form Con 29)
£136.00
Basic Search of Non-Residential Property
(this includes the LLC1 and Part 1 enquiries on Form Con 29)
A reduction is offered for Electronic Searches, contact NLIS Hub at nlishub@idea.gov.uk
£176.00

Part 2 Enquiries (except Q.22)
(N.B. There is no charge for optional enquiry 4)

£10.00

Part 2 - Question 22 (Common Land)£14.00
Limestone Enquiries£20.00
Landfill Enquiries£10.00
Additional Parcels of Land: LLC1
(to an additional maximum of £16.00)
£1.00 each
Additional Parcels of Land: Con 29
(to an additional maximum of £200.00)
£9.00 each
Personal Search
(Single parcel of land)
£11.00
Duplicate copy of search£10.00


Note: Searches will not be processed without the correct fee being paid. Cheques should be made payable to Sandwell MBC.

If your solicitor is lodging your Land Charge Searches via the Internet, using the NLIS Hub, then our fees are reduced by 18%.

Personal Searches

Whats New!!

Personal Search Electronic Appointment Book - From 10th March 2008

The booking of Personal Search appointments by telephone has been replaced with online access to a dedicated Personal Search appointment diary.  This will allow companies the freedom to book their own appointments between 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, up to10 working days in advance.

By selecting 'Appointment Book' above you will gain access to the system.  Once you have read and agreed the terms of the system we will forward your password to open the diary.  

User guide on how to use the Appointment Book.

FROM 01 AUGUST 2007
LOCAL ENQUIRIES (CON29 “REQUIRED”)

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council is currently operating in accordance with the 2005 “Personal Searches Guidance for Local Authorities and Personal Searchers”   

Information is accessible in respect of the unitary development plan, the planning applications and decisions register, the stop and enforcement register.  The Definitive Footpaths/Public Rights of way Register information can be obtained by contacting  0121 569 4151.  Road adoption information can be obtained by contacting Highways on 0121 569 4820.

Post 1996 Building Regulation information can be obtained by writing in with a fee of £20.00 to Mrs T Hollingworth, Development House, Lombard Street, West Bromwich.

Where information does not form part of a statutory register, public document or record, we are working towards making more of that information available as soon as is practical.

We await any resultant guidance or policy decisions that may arise from the Government Consultation document on access to information. We also await the outcomes of the work currently being undertaken into the three OFT options for a charging regime for access to/the provision of information that is currently being undertaken on behalf of Central Government in response to the December 2006 OFT report in to the Property Searches Market.

The Council is experiencing a rise in the number of personal searches, despite the speedy turnaround time for official searches.

If you are a Personal Search company who wish to book an appointment for a vist, please note that we operation a first come first served appointment system which operates from 9.00am daily with a restricted amount of places available.

What is a Personal Search?

A personal search is a search of the Local Land Charge Register only. Once that has been done for a statutory fee of £11 the personal search is over. A personal search can only be undertaken at the Local Land Charge Section. However, any member of the public is allowed to view the other statutory registers held by the Council.

Only the basic information that is required to be contained in these Registers is open for inspection.

What about CON 29 Questions?

The CON 29 enquiries questionnaire, which forms part of the official search, contains many "Warning" questions, the answers to which you will not find on any of the statutory registers.

Examples of the information only to be found by submitting a CON 29 are given below:

If you rely on a personal search from a solicitor or personal search company may we remind you that they are not given, or entitled to receive, answers to the questions on the CON 29, and any information they do obtain is not covered by Section 10(3) of the Local Land Charges Act 1975 which relates to compensation for loss. The only way to receive this information is to submit the official LLC1 and CON 29 forms.

Our Commitment to You

We aim to return all official searches within 2-4 working days. We also offer a 24 hour expedited service for urgent searches, which is free of charge with limitations on numbers requested. For details relating to the service (including fee details) please contact the Local Land Charges Office on one of the telephone numbers 0121 569 3207/3208/3256/3257/4067.

National Land Information Service (NLIS)