Local land charge search

Searches are usually carried out on behalf of the Solicitor, Conveyancer or Mortgage Lender. A Local Authority search will identify if there are any legal restrictions, financial charges and any proposals for development that could affect your property.  

Local land searches do not reveal ownership for a property or a piece of land. You will need to contact Land Registry or for land that is owned by the Council, our Valuation and Estates Team.  

Types of searches

There are two types of local land charge search available: a Local Authority search or a personal search.

Local authority search

Local authority searches are covered by the Local Land Charges Act 1975 and guarantee comprehensive replies to the official LLC1 and CON29 enquiries. We are required by law to keep a local land charges register. This is a comprehensive record of properties in the borough from residential houses to commercial buildings. 

The register includes information such as planning permissions, conservation area designation, tree preservation orders, enforcement notices, improvement grants and financial charges. 

Information that is found on the register is used to respond to land charges searches when property changes hands. 

The search certificate will bear our logo and will be signed by a Council Officer. Please note that a Certificate of Search will only be produced and signed by a local authority. 

We aim to return Official Searches within 3 working days.

The search will be in two parts: 

LLC1 - this first part, the 'Official Certificate of Search Form', deals with all the registerable charges, for example financial charges registered against the property by the local authority, improvement grants, tree preservation orders, conditional planning consents and agreements. 

We aim to return 90% of our searches within 48 hours.

CON29 - the second part, called 'Enquiries of Local Authorities Form', deals with issues such as road schemes, the planning history of the property and various notices which affect the property. 

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: 

• compulsory purchase orders
• many informal notices under planning and highways laws not found on any register
• road proposals or schemes (including road widening)
• proposed enforcement action or breach of conditions notices.

Optional questions

The CON29O contains 19 less requested optional questions. Any number of these can be requested for the set fee. We do not answer question 8 in regard to pipelines. You will need tocontact Transco for this enquiry.

A definitive list of the questions is as follows:

• compulsory purchase orders
• many informal notices under planning and highways laws not found on any register
• road proposals or schemes (including road widening)
• proposed enforcement action or breach of conditions notices
• road proposals by private bodies
• advertisements
• completion notices
• parks and countryside
• pipelines (for an answer to this question please contact Transco)
• house In multiple occupation
• noise abatement
• urban development areas
• enterprise zones
• inner urban improvement areas
• simplified planning zones
• land maintenance notices
• mineral consultation and safeguarding areas
• hazardous substance consents
• environmental and pollution notices
• food safety notices
• hedgerow notices
• flood defence and land drainage consents
• common land, town or village

We aim to return 90% of requests solely for optional questions within 48 hours.

Making a land charges search request

You can request a land charges search directly from Lewisham Council land.charges@lewisham.gov.uk

Water Enquiries

It's possible you will have queries relating to a property's water supply. For answers to CON29 water enquiries please contact:

Thames Water Property

Insight Asset Data Services

DX151280 Slough 13

Tel: 0118 923 6656

Request a local authority search

To request an official search you need to send details of the property/land being searched and an up to date OS plan at 1:1250 with the site clearly marked. If you are searching for information on a flat that is within a larger property, it is useful to provide the correct flat number/floor number along with the postal address and not just a development plan number. 

Your request can be sent by email or post and you must include your company name, address, email and telephone number. All searches are returned via email therefore it is important that you have a valid and complete email address. Please note – we do not use the dx. Any searches sent via the dx will not be received or processed.

We will contact you if there is a query regarding the search address, if another site plan is required or if there is any other problem. 

Please note that we require a full address to be submitted. Plot numbers cannot be processed and this will cause a delay to your search.

Enhanced Search 

The enhanced search service allows you to be provided with your search alongside the documents that are attached to the register and CON29. This includes copies of Planning Permissions and S278/S106 Agreements. The cost to use this service is £77.00 plus the full Official Search fee.

You can still request for copies of permissions and agreements after you have received your search result, and this will be provided to you within 20 working days.

Expedited Searches

If you would like to receive the results for your search sooner than our current turnaround times, you can use our expedited service. If you are submitting a Residential Search, then the results will be returned to you within 24 hours. If you are submitting a Commercial Search then the results will be returned to you within 48 hours.

If you submit an expedited search on a Friday, the earliest that you will receive your results will be Monday.

Please note that our Enhanced Search service is not available under our expedited service.

Amended Register

If amendments have been made to your register search and you would like an updated copy of the register, this can be provided to you at a cost of £5.00.

Payment

Payment for the search can only be made by Credit/Debit card. We no longer accept cheques. We can only proceed with the search once payment has been made. Once payment has been received, you will receive a confirmation email to advise you that your search is in progress and what the expected return date will be.

Personal Search

Personal searches can be made via a third party, an agency or by a member of the public. A request can be made to view a copy of the local land charges register for free under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 by emailing the Local Land Charges Team. All requests are booked 20 days in advance and are returned via email. Only one request can be made, per day, per agent for each requested address. We cannot be held responsible for a report completed by a personal search agent. Queries which arise from a personal search should be investigated through the personal search company in the first instance. 

It is also recommended by the Local Land Charges Institute that a full official local authority search is issued in place of a personal search. Read more about the local land charge personal search.

Scale of fees  (from 01/04/2024)