Local Land Charges and Local Authority Searches

Land Charges Property Searches form part of the conveyancing process when re-mortgaging or buying/selling a property. The Local Land Charges Service is responsible for maintaining the Local Land Charges Register and for providing Official Local Authority Searches of that Register and other records held by the Council.

Requests for full official searches of the Local Land Charges Register (i.e. LLC1, CON29) are provided by Blaby District Council (BDC) on behalf of Oadby and Wigston Borough Council. For further information, please visit their website.

All other personal and property-based requests for information made under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 ("the EIR") are processed in-house by Oadby and Wigston Borough Council (OWBC)

Turnaround Times

We are currently completing official searches in under 10 working days.

We will respond to EIR requests (for local land charges information) broadly in line with turnaround times for official searches, as soon as possible and no later than 20 working days.

Fees and Charges

The fees and charges set out below apply for searches undertaken by Blaby District Council for Oadby and Wigston Borough Council

Search	Vat category	Fee until 31 March 2024	Fee from 1 April 2024
LLC1 Search - Residential and Commercial	OS	£30	£30
CON29R Search - Residential	SR	£115	£120
CON29R Search - Commercial	SR	£135	£140
Full Search (LLC and CONR29) - Residential	OS/SR	£145	£150
Full Search (LLC and CONR29) - Commercial	OS/SR	£165	£170
CON29R Optional (Questions 4-22 each)	SR	£21.20	£25
CON29 Building Regs (Q1.1j-l and 3.8 each)	SR	£7	£8
LLC1 Additional parcel fee	OS	£1	£1
CON29R Additional parcel fee	SR	£18	£20
Own written questions	SR	£35	£35

Copies of legal documents

For copies of other legal agreements or documents referred to in search results, please email planning@oadby-wigston.gov.uk.

There is an administration fee of £46.16 (including VAT) per document.

Ways to pay

We offer the following payment options for searches:

• Payment on Account – you will receive a monthly invoice which is payable by BACS on direct debit each month. Please contact land.charges@oadby-wigston.gov.uk to find out more.

• Debit or Credit Card payment – we will telephone you to take payment for each search; a small surcharge is payable for credit card payments

• Cheque - if you prefer to pay by cheque, make cheques payable to Blaby District Council, even if your search is in the Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council or Oadby and Wigston Borough Council area. Please ensure that your cheque is for the correct amount and made out to Blaby District Council or there may be delays in processing your search request.

For all information and application forms official searches please visit the Leicestershire Land & Property Searches (external link) website.

What is an Official Local Authority Search?

When you buy an Official Local Authority Search (from Blaby District Council on behalf of OWBC), experienced and dedicated Local Land Charges Officers interrogate the local land charges register. Using skill and judgement, they work to provide you with an accurate search result that is relevant to your property. The accuracy of the search result is guaranteed by the Local Authority.

Only Local Authorities can provide an Official Local Authority Search. Personal search companies may offer a “Local Authority Search”, which they prepare based on raw local authority data which they access under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) or information which is already in the public domain. These results are covered by the personal search company’s insurance.

How to order an Official Local Authority Search

You find application forms and can place your order through the Leicestershire online portal: http://www.leicestershiresearches.co.uk (external website)

You can order your search by email to land.charges@oadby-wigston.gov.uk.

Please ensure that you include a plan* with your order showing the search area clearly outlined in red. Any orders where the required search area is unclear will require clarification which may delay your results.

*Please note: under the terms of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) the Council is unable to accept plans or maps which are not licensed for use by your business. This includes maps or plans that have been copied from other maps, such as a Land Registry Title Plan or a map which has a watermark.

Any search requests which we receive that include a plan or map which we consider to be unlicensed will be returned to you and should be resubmitted with a properly sourced plan or map. If we continue to receive unlicensed plans from you, we may refer the matter to Ordnance Survey, who may levy a fine.

For more information about using the Ordnance Survey (OS) information and licensing, please visit the OS website (external website).

Cancellations and Refunds

We start working on your search as soon as we have received payment. In the event that you no longer require your search and wish to cancel, we will be unable to issue a refund as work will already have been carried out.

Personal Searches / EIR of the Local Land Charges Register

For a “personal search” of the local land charges register for Oadby and Wigston Borough Council, please send your request, along with a plan clearly showing the property to be searched outlined in red, through to EIR@oadby-wigston.gov.uk.

Personal searches are provided for free under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). A personal search is simply a copy of all the registrations that are held on the local land charges register when a search is conducted against the address provided. The response we provide is a copy of the raw data only - it is unchecked, unverified and unofficial. As a result, it is for the customer to decide what information provided is relevant to that property or not.

Personal searches carried out by OWBC cover only the following CON29R questions, and only when requested and if applicable:

• 1.1 (a)-(f) and (h)-(l)
• 3.7 (a)-(d)
• 3.8
• 3.9 (a)-(n)
• 3.11 (a)-(b)
• 3.12

Please note that we do not operate an appointments system; an extract of the Register will be provided to you by email. We will respond to a request for access to the register under the EIR as soon as possible and no later than 20 working days starting with the business day after the request was received, as provided for by the EIR.

We are unable to interpret personal search results or provide advice to customers on their content. If you have questions about the results provided on a personal search, please contact your personal search provider.

For copies of legal agreements or other documents referred to in search results, please email planning@oadby-wigston.gov.uk.

Access to information to answer the CON29 form under the EIR (including new CON29 form from 1st July 2016)

Much of the information required to answer the questions on the CON29 form under EIR is publicly available. Where this information isn’t readily available, the Council provides access on request under EIR through its corporate Freedom of Information (FOI) and EIR process. For more information, please visit the Environmental Information Regulations page.

It is highly recommended that you consult the following document Sources of Property-Based Information (Sept 2022). This document provides you with detailed information as to a variety of publically-available sources of property based information under the EIR and how to easily access them yourself.