Guidance

Local Land Charges Programme

Updated 18 June 2018

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-land-registry-local-land-charges-programme/local-land-charges-programme

Every local authority in England, with the exception of county councils, is required to hold a local land charges register that records obligations affecting properties within their administrative area. Under the Infrastructure Act 2015 responsibility for the 326 registers will be transferred to HM Land Registry in a phased approach beginning in summer 2018.

Our new digital Local Land Charges service

Our new service will standardise local land charge information in one accessible place. Business customers and other users will be able to access the service through their portal accounts, Business Gateway and on GOV.UK.

You will have the option of downloading a personal search for free or an official search for £15. You will also be able to use a search provider who will be able to access our Local Land Charges service to get the information you need.

Read about what the service offers.

Benefits of the Local Land Charges official search:

  • guaranteed search results provide the highest level of due diligence
  • the full spatial extent of every charge appears on the search result
  • standard £15 fee for each search, providing a reduction to the current national average price
  • consistent quality of data provides clear and accurate search results
  • instant online search result with 24/7 access to the data, reducing delays in receiving searches
  • unlimited repeat searches for six months to check for any new charges before completing a transaction
  • search history dashboard giving you access to your previous searches at any time

Watch a video about our new Local Land Charges service

Creating a national Local Land Charges Register

Throughout the summer of 2018, the following local authorities’ local land charges data will transfer to HM Land Registry:

Local authorities Transfer date
Blackpool Council to be announced
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to be announced
City of London Corporation to be announced
Liverpool City Council to be announced
London Borough of Lambeth to be announced
Norwich City Council to be announced
Peterborough City Council to be announced
The Council of the Isles of Scilly to be announced
Warwick District Council 11 July 2018

When the transfer of data from an individual local authority to HM Land Registry is completed, local authorities will still be required to apply, vary and cancel charges in the new register. They will also need to provide source documents on request and respond to additional enquiries from customers following HM Land Registry’s issue of a search result.

This is a historic step forward in the Government’s ambition to make the home-buying process simpler, faster and cheaper. It is also an important part of our Business Strategy to help improve the entire conveyancing process.

Local land charges

Local land charges searches are normally required in the property-buying process. Most local land charges are restrictions or prohibitions on the use of the property. The local land charges search will reveal whether a property is subject to a charge if that charge has been registered. The property will be subject to it regardless of whether it is registered or not. Other searches will need to be conducted to determine whether a property has an obligation on it.

Common obligations protected as local land charges include:

  • planning permissions (these form the majority of charges)
  • listed buildings
  • conservation areas
  • tree preservation orders
  • improvement and renovation grants
  • smoke control zone conditions
  • light obstruction notice conditions

Local authorities maintain a local land charges register for their administrative area. The records are held in a range of formats such as paper, microfiche and electronic. Prices also vary considerably and this has led to an inconsistent service for customers depending on their postcode.

A local land charge is created by either local authorities or other bodies with the powers to do so, known collectively as originating authorities.

Pre-migration guide

Local authorities must complete a number of tasks prior to the migration of their local land charges data.

Read the pre-migration guide.

Public consultation

As implementation requires secondary legislation, we launched a public consultation on the draft Local Land Charges Rules 2017, which ran until 11 July 2016.

Local Land Charges (PG79)

Read our practice guide 79: local land charges for information on:

  • applications to register a local land charge or to vary or cancel the registration of a local land charge
  • applications for an official search or personal search of the local land charges register

Local Land Charges fees

The information in our guide: Local Land Charges fees is a summary of the Local Land Charges Fees (England) Rules 2018. The guide also refers to the Local Land Charges Rules 2018.

Contact

Contact the programme team: llcproject@landregistry.gov.uk.

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