London - Local Authority searches

jenz

Has anyone recently or is in the process of having a local authority search done on house purchase.

I know the length of time it can take will vary depending on the council but we have been waiting several weeks for one to be completed on our purchaser's property and everyone in the chain is becoming increasingly frustrated at the length of time it is taking. Amid threats of parties pulling out and re-entering market, we are pulling our hair out with delay.

EA and Solicitors are not cooperative and we are beginning to feel the whole thing is becoming a bit of a farce.

Anyone please give some advice ............can there be long delays in obtaining searches? We just can't help feeling that someone is using this an an excuse!

olly300

I was told to expect 6 weeks however I have found answers to your question from different sources:

http://www.landsearch.net/faq_localauthority.asp
"All of the local authorities throughout England and Wales have different response times. Many have digitised their records but some have not. With some local authorities we can receive the search results the same day; others can take a week or more. Over the next 12 months their response times will improve as they prepare for e-conveyancing, which means that the speed of our searches will improve."


http://www.havant.gov.uk/havant-4273#howlongtoreturnLAsearch
The government’s national target for returning standard searches is 10 working days or less.

I suggest you:
1. Look at the local authority website to see how long their searches take
2. Contact them via the phone number you can find on the website and see if they have a backlog for any reason i.e. people being ill
3. If there is no backlog contact your solicitor in person or in writing and ask them what is going on.

suniil

i got the search reports just after a week i paid fees to solicitor.