Buying or Selling a Home
What is a local land charges search?
Local Authority Searches are essential documents that inform potential home buyers of any issues, such as planning permissions or road adoption schemes, that could affect the new owner of a property.
A Local Land Charge (LLC) is a restriction or prohibition imposed on land or a financial charge, which is binding on successive owners or occupiers of land or occupiers of property or land.
A LLC search is required whenever a property is purchased, leased or re-mortgaged. It gives the solicitor, on behalf of the home mover, vital information on the existence of obligations, or ‘charges’, enforceable against the property or land. This information includes charges for services such as roads, restrictions such as tree preservation orders and conditions imposed on planning permissions, conservation areas, legal agreements and listed buildings.
West Somerset Council’s LLC service is fast and provides fully guaranteed information.
The Search is in three parts:
Part One: The LLC1 Form
This is the Official Certificate of Search form. The replies to the LLC1 form will reveal any registered charges that affect the property. For example, financial charges (these are registered by the local authority), conditional planning consents, Section 38 Agreements, Tree Preservation Orders and Improvement Grants. These charges are stored on the Local Land Charges Register which the Land Charges section maintains and updates.
Part Two: The Con 29R Form
This section will inform home movers for example, of any planning application and building regulations on the property or land, planning designations and proposals, if the roadway is maintained at public expense, any nearby road or traffic schemes, any decisions to compulsory purchase or acquire the property, does the property fall within contaminated or radon gas areas. This is a compulsory document in a Home Information Pack. All of the information required to complete this form can be obtained from West Somerset Council.
Part Three: Con 29O Form
This section is made up of the following 19 individual optional enquiries:
Road Proposals by Private Bodies
Public Paths or byways Advertisements
Completion Notices
Parks & Countryside
Pipelines
Houses in Multiple Occupation
Noise Abatement
Urban Development Areas
Enterprise Zones
Inner Urban Improvement Areas
Food Safety
Simplified Planning Zones
Land Maintenance Notices
Mineral Consultation Areas
Hazardous Substance Consents
Environmental and Pollution Notices
Food Safety Notices
Hedgerow Notices
Registered Common Land and Town or Village Green
Additional Enquiries
This allows the individual or the Solicitor to ask an additional question of their choice, for example:
Please supply information of all Planning Applications received within the last five years within a 50 metre radius of the property.
This additional enquiry should be typed on a separate sheet of paper and enclosed with the Search. The Council reserves the right to refuse to process any additional enquiry where it either does not hold the requested information or it considers the request unreasonable.
When submitting a Search to be processed please make sure that both the LLC1 Form and Con 29R are in duplicate with the correct address quoted. Please also make sure you send two copies of an up-to-date site plan clearly showing the extent and location of the land/property to be searched on in red.