Why buyers in York are winning the postcode lottery when it comes to conveyancing checks
Yorkshire Post – online edition 23rd September 2024
York is one of fastest places for local authority searches in England, turning around these vital conveyancing checks in three days on average, whilst some councils are taking two months to complete the job.
New research by Spring, a national home-buying and part exchange service, and leading data provider Propalt shows thousands of movers are left stressed and frustrated and may even find their buying and selling chain falls apart due to delays with searches.
“There is a vast discrepancy in local authority search times across the country which can be driven by various factors including property demand, staffing and resource levels in each area,” says Cormac Henderson, co-founder and executive chairman at Spring.
“While there are some winners getting searches returned in less than 24 hours that does not necessarily mean a faster overall conveyancing process. At the bottom end, those in slower areas are waiting up to 5,900 per cent longer, which can contribute to a greatly protracted and stressful moving saga.”
When combined with other factors such as slow sales markets, increased mortgage due diligence times, under-resourced conveyancers, inefficient processes and unstable chains, waiting for searches causes significant delays to the moving process, Henderson adds.
First-time buyers soon learn about the dreaded searches. Also known as local searches or property searches, what they tell interested parties can make or break a sale.
Searches check for planning permissions and Building Regulations on a property, highways and rights of way, listed building status and information confirming a Conservation Area, for example, as well as other important matters such as Tree Preservation Orders and whether development is planned nearby in the future.
Prospective buyers, advised by their conveyancing solicitor, can also ask for searches on potential adverse factors such as flood risk, contaminated land and mining subsidence. Once searches are returned, there may need to be further investigation required before a buyer and their mortgage company are happy to proceed, if the sale indeed goes ahead.
“The consumer is at the mercy of the local authority in regards to search times with nothing that can be done directly as it is all handled by the conveyancer,” says Emma Fildes, founder of independent buying agency Brick Weaver. “However, broadly speaking, to put yourself in the best position possible, preparation is key. Even before you have found a property, appoint a conveyancer or solicitor with a good reputation and ensure they have all of your information so that when you do begin a transaction, they are ready to go.”
Top of the tardy table are Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and Canterbury City Council, both coming back within an average of 60 days, followed by Camden Council in London at 45 days, the Islington Council, also in London, at 40 days, along with Tamworth Borough Council in the West Midlands.
At the other end of the scale, lucky movers in locations covered by Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council in Suffolk, Salisbury District Council in Wiltshire, and North Wiltshire District Council, plus Taunton Deane Borough Council in Somerset might find their searches returned in less than a day.
Elsewhere in Yorkshire, Ryedale District Council and Hambleton District Council, both in North Yorkshire are the best performers, coming back to conveyancers with search information within, on average, five days.
Over the last six years local authorities in England and Wales have been gradually moving over to digitalised services, migrating what is known as local land charges data to the national Local Land Charges Register.
York City Council has already joined this major overhaul, which HM Land Registry says was set in motion to speed up the old-fashioned physical process of council staff hunting down records and to help keep the costs of searches down. Another option for buyers is to instruct search companies to carry out ‘personalised’ searches on their behalf, for a fee. The Homeowners Alliance, an organisation offering advice on buying and selling, says the typical cost of a search package conducted by a local council is between £250 and £450.
Since the programme was launched in 2018, more than 6.5 million data items across England and Wales have been cleansed, digitised and standardised, says HM Land Registry. This enables property buyers, and anyone else interested in the data, to obtain it quickly and simply.
Henderson adds: “Even once the data is transferred, that does not guarantee a fast process. Overall, Yorkshire – led by York – performs well in the national standings.”