Changes to our Local Land Charges Register

As part of the Government initiative HM Land Registry is working with South Staffordshire Council, as part of the Southern Staffordshire Land Charges Partnership, to improve conveyancing and streamline the homebuying process.

When complete, HM Land Registry will provide search results for local land charges searches to all South Staffordshire customers, including solicitors, conveyancers, and personal search agents.

The new service is expected to ‘go live' and will be available on 11th August 2022.

In order to fully prepare for the migration, the Southern Staffordshire Land Charges Partnership will no longer provide LLC1s or Personal Searches from 5PM on Friday 29th July. This means any Personal search, LLC1, or Full Search request sent between 30th July – 10th August 2022 will not be accepted.

The Southern Staffordshire Land Charges Partnership will continue to provide replies to CON29 and CON29O enquiries – please ensure the appropriate fees and forms are submitted to avoid unnecessary delays.

On 11th August 2022, access to the new HM Land Registry digital service will be available for Personal searches and the submission of LLC1 requests via the Business Gateway and HM Land Registry's GOV.UK pages https://search-local-land-charges.service.gov.uk/

More information on the changes can be found here: Local Land Charges Programme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

What is a local land charge search?

Local land charges searches are normally required in the property-buying process and sought by regular customers including solicitors, conveyancers, and search intermediaries. 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.

The common obligations protected as local land charges include:

• Planning permissions (majority of charges)
• Listed buildings
• Conservation areas
• Tree preservation orders
• Improvement and renovation grants
• Smoke control zone conditions
• Light obstruction notice conditions