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Local Land Charges

The Local Land Charges section is responsible for maintaining the Local Land Charges Register and providing the Council's Local Land Searches process. This consists of two forms:

• LLC1 (search of the register), and
• Con29 form (enquiries of local authorities questionnaire).

Our register is held on a computer database, backed up by paper copies of relevant documents.

Local Land Charge searches are submitted by solicitors as part of the purchase, sale or mortgaging of a property. A report will be produced giving a history of the local charges relating to that property, as well as any other information which may have been requested on the Con29 forms.

There are three ways in which a search may be requested:

• by post,
• in person (see 'Personal Searches' below) or
• electronically (see below).

The fees for these services, as from 1 April 2008, are:

LLC1 only (Postal)	£6.00
LLC1 only (NLIS online submission)	£4.00
Basic Postal Search (LLC1 & CON29 Required)	£127.40
Basic NLIS Search (LLC1 & CON29 Required)	£121.80
CON29 Optional Enquiries (Except Question 22)	£11.00 each
CON29 Optional Enquiries (Question 22 Only) N.B. Additional parcel fee of £1.00 per parcel will be levied where appropriate.	£18.00
Other optional enquiries (Own Questions)	£18.00 each
Extra Parcel of Land	£19.30 per parcel
Cancellation of Search (Only applies if processing has not begun)	£24.80
Copy Search Fee	£9.70 + £1.70 VAT  (£11.40)
Personal Searches, for which the authority takes no responsibility for the answers	£11.00

Electronic Submission of Searches
By far the most efficient way of requesting a search is electronically. Any searches we receive by this method are also returned electronically. Your solicitor can do this if they subscribe to the National Land Information Service (NLIS), through one of the three channel companies (Searchflow, TM Search or MDA TransAction Online). By doing business this way, they can not only request local authority searches but a host of other searches, thus achieving a potential reduction in total conveyancing time (and a possible cost benefit, too). Further information can be found at www.nlis.org.uk

Personal Searches
A Personal Search may be conducted on any weekday, in half-hourly appointments at 1000, 1030, 1100, 1130, 1400 and 1430. Payment may be made by cash, cheque or card, at the time the search is conducted. Bookings must be made by 0900 on the working day prior to the appointment. Also, a site location plan, clearly showing the exact extent of the search area must be posted or faxed to this office, to a similar time scale. Failure to provide a clear and adequately marked site location plan may result in the appointment being cancelled.

Before taking the personal search option however, you should be aware of the differences in the two types of report. An official search is fully guaranteed by the Council and consists of two parts: the LLC1, which provides a list of all entries on the Local Land Charges Register directly affecting the property, and; the Con29 which lists a host of other items which are not on any publicly available registers, like County Council road schemes (pedestrian crossings, traffic calming, etc), pending tree preservation orders, enforcement notices, breach of condition notices, etc. A personal search will only give you the LLC1 report and all other information must be gathered by recourse to the planning register, Environmental Services, minutes of Council and Cabinet meetings, etc.

West Oxfordshire District Council can take no responsibility for the answers found through a personal search.

Home Information Pack
The Home Information Pack (HIP) was introduced on 1 August 2007 (for 4 bedroomed properties, or larger) and extended to include all properties on 14th December 2007.  This means we have had to change the way searches are conducted in connection with house sales.

The responsibility for obtaining the search will move from the buyer to the seller and there is new or revised legislation affecting the information to be included in the reports. The main change will be the ability to conduct the Common Land and Village Green (CLVG) search via the new Con (Optional) form, rather than having to apply separately to the County Council. This information will still be held and passed to us by the County Council but obtaining it via the official search route should streamline the process.

The Government department responsible for these changes - 'Communities and Local Government' has set up a web site - www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk - where all HIP related information can be found.

Please note:   
All searches must be accompanied by the full fee and two copies of a site location plan, to a scale of 1:2500.

Search fees are due for review during 2008/09 and may be subject to change following that review.

For further information contact Land Charges, Telephone 01993 861440 or fax 01993 861451.

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Last reviewed 10 July 2008

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