As featured in Property Reporter – 27th August 2024 by Amy Loddington | Online Editor, Financial Reporter

Local authority searches are taking up to 60 days in some areas – slowing down the moving process – despite the average being 11.5 days, reveals new research from Spring.

However, thousands of movers across the country are left stressed and frustrated due to vast discrepancies with searches taking up to a staggering 40 days for Tamworth Borough Council and Islington London Borough Council respectively, 45 days for Camden Council and 60 days for Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and Canterbury City Council respectively.

This represents major delays against the Government’s target for returning local searches in 2024 within a maximum of 10 working days.

Conversely, for some lucky movers searches are taking as little as under 1 day for authorities such as Forest Heath District Council, Salisbury District Council, St. Edmundsbury Borough Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council and North Wiltshire District Council, however that does not guarantee a fast sale with various other factors at play including local conveyancing capabilities.

The average conveyancing caseload per firm has nearly increased by 79% over the past decade, while there has been a 13% fall in the number of solicitors working in residential conveyancing from September 2021 to October 2023.

A local authority search (also known as local search or property search) refers to the provision of specific information about a particular property and the surrounding area for buyers and sellers such as planning permission information, highway information, Listed building status or Conservation Areas.

When combined with other factors such as a slowing sales market, increased mortgage due diligence times, under resourced conveyancers, inefficient processes and potential chains, this causes significant delays to the overall moving process.

Previous research from Spring revealed the UK’s slowest areas for sales from the day of listing to completion, with the average home in Sutton taking 174 days to sell, 161 days in Harpenden and Harborne taking 154 days to sell.

Cormac Henderson, co-founder and executive chairman at Spring, comments:

“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.

“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% longer, which can contribute to a greatly protracted and stressful moving saga.

“When put into the mix with waning demand and a shortage of buyers in some areas, slow processes, under resourced departments and chains collapsing, this presents a real headache for movers who just want to get on with it.”

View article in Property Reporter here