I had to wait 3-4 weeks too. I believe it depends on the solicitors and how hard to obtain relevant documents from relevant parties.

Some take 4 days, others take 4 months. All depends on the specific local authority.

Nope, it has nothing to do with the solicitors.

Local authority searches are generally the ones that take the longest time, and it varies from one local authority to another.

4 months!. Hope its not that long!.

Has anyone here had their searches took more then a month?

Also is it true that if you apply for Personal Searches its a bit quicker? Not sure if its possible to 'upgrade' to personal search?

My solicitor said they carry out searches by "carried out by external third parties.". Does it mean personal searches or its not same?

Many Local Authority websites give a timescale for searches to be returned. Some can be as little as 5 working days.

However, it depends on so many other factors. Your solicitor may take 5 days to apply for them, 5 days to be dispatched by the LA, they may take another 5 days in the post, then another 5 days to be looked at, and another 5 days for you to be sent them.

Are you getting the gist of this '5 days' thing?........

Not really; 5 days would have been the best case scenario. 4 weeks would have been ok. Its already over 4 weeks..

Any idea about this ...

2 years ago when we moved we were told our LA searches could take 8 weeks!
I had to chase them myself because it was holding up the chain so she put ours to the top of the pile. (Yes it was just ONE employee dealing with all the local searches!)

Can we chase this up if this was done via third party?

Mine took 17 weeks and the solicitors were insistent that there was no acceptable alternative. So I had to wait

Most solicitors use a third party company to do the searches. The Local Authority takes the longest, around 4 weeks, but does depend on the authority. No you can't chase them and even if you could they don't expedite the process.

Some lenders will not accept personal searches, so find out which one your lender accepts.

Thanks everyone for their responses. 17 weeks does sound scary. Hope mine is not the same.

The council website shows following

Am I right to understand that personal searches and the one "carried out by external third parties" are one and the same thing?

UPDATE : So I just called council and they said they have sent LLC1 to the service company on 26th June!

So its either service company not sending those back to the solicitor or the solicitor is not processing for xyz reasons!

Any idea who to chase up? I can ask for service company's detail from my solicitor and chase it up (if they give me details). Or I can tell my solicitor that "I got update from council about this could you please chase up?"

Are there any other documents/process that searches requires apart from LLC1?

Its freehold house btw.

Start with your solicitor.

When we sold our house in Wiltshire in 2014 our buyer's searches took six weeks whereas those for the house we were buying in the West Midlands took two weeks.

Thanks, Is it wise to mention to my solicitor that "I have phoned the council and they have sent the LLC1 on 26th June so please chase it up with your service provider."?

or does it sounds like I am stepping over their toes !?

Without being rude, why is it so important to chase up? You know when the request was made, it now won't make any difference as to when you'll get the search and it probably won't slow the transaction down because there will be other matters that the solicitor is dealing with. In the big scheme of things, it is just one small part of the transaction that has to be ticked off. Solicitors do have more than one client.

Did you pay the search fees before the solicitor had the draft contracts? If so, they will not usually order searches until they can see from the draft contract the correct property they need to get the search for. If you paid by cheque, they would have waited until that was cashed before ordering searches. Bear in mind that the Accounts Department deal with your payments but a conveyancing paralegal would probably order your searches once the Accounts Department have approved the payment. Since Accounts probably have hundreds of payments in and out, it would not be instantaneously passed to the conveyancing team - they might be forwarded in batches. The conveyancing paralegal would also have to check the lenders handbook to find out which searches the lender wants, because sometimes some searches are not acceptable to a lender. There would be forms to complete, print and put on your file, so not a 5 minute job.

To be honest I do think you would be stepping on their toes. Every time you call or email about this, you are stopping them from ordering someone else's searches.

One thing to bear in mind is that some (not all) solicitors charge for any additional work. That could include returning your phone call, sending an email, or indeed 'chasing' on your behalf.

Doesnt surprise me in the slightest.

I used to work in propertly and in my experience when it cames to searches it was usually the solicitors slowing things down and blaming the council.

The problem often arises where solicitors employ search companies to conduct the work, who then actually get the council to carry it out for them anyway. Then as the council are the last ones in the chain they usually get the blame.

I had a cash buyer with no chain, so I thought it would be quick. However searches took 5 months and at the very end the buyer decided to pull out.
Worse experience ever