Council expresses concern at Land Registry proposals

Shropshire Council is concerned that changes proposed by the Land Registry for it to take over the Local Land Charge Register could lead to a poorer service for potential housebuyers. 

The Land Registry is running a consultation into taking over the statutory management of the register, which is currently managed by local councils, and people have until Sunday 9 March 2014 to have their say. 

Council officers say the proposals will have implications for people buying a house when they have searches carried out into their potential new property. 

A Local Land Charges search currently consists of two parts. 

The first part is the Local Land Charge Register, which contains information such as planning permissions, conservation areas and listed building restrictions that are binding on successive owners, and the second part of a search is the “CON29r”, which contains information such as building regulations, road adoptions and planning policies. 

Solicitors and mortgage companies would normally request both parts of a search to give a more accurate picture of the property and its history. 

The Land Registry plans to split the search process so it will become the registering authority and take responsibility for a central Local Land Charges Register for the whole country providing, at this stage, the first part of the search only. 

The CON29r response will continue to be provided by the council. 

Mal Price, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for planning and housing, explained the council’s concerns: 

“The proposal is supposed to standardise search fees, turnaround times and output, but by splitting the two parts of the search this won’t happen. 

“The Land Registry is also proposing to provide information on the Local Land Charge Register for the previous 15 years only, which means any registrations prior to 1999 would not be revealed. 

“This could cause problems for someone buying a house because some historic charges, such as listed building records, conservation areas and tree preservation orders, would not be revealed. 

“The service currently provided by councils offers local knowledge and an understanding of the charges being revealed, not least because the vast majority of charges originate from councils in the first place. 

“To move the register to the Land Registry is likely to lead to a poorer service for potential purchasers and a potential lack of information on the property they are buying.” 

The consultation process ends on Sunday 9 March 2014 and people can read and respond to the document at www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/consultations.