Property Practice - Buyer's Pre-Contract Searches and Enquiries and Planning Flashcards
Local Search
Search sent to Local Authority
Search of local land charges register (e.g. financial charges, planning restrictions)
Optional enquiries of local authority (e.g. commons registration search)
Types of local search:
- Local Land Charges: General and Specific Financial Charges owed to the Local Authority (buyer’s solicitor should raise this as an enquiry and seller’s solicitor should undertake to repay the charge with the sale proceeds), Planning Charges and Listed Building Charges
Additional Searches
- Drainage and Water Search: details about water supply, metering and proximity of public sewer
- Environmental search: landowners responsible for clean-up costs for any contaminated land they own even if they did not cause the contamination
Non-standard searches
- If title unregistered: search of Index Map, reveals if property is fully or partially registered
- If buyer obtaining mortgage: bankruptcy search against full name(s) of buyer(s)
- Company search: will reveal if company subject to any winding up orders or liquidation proceedings, whether company authorised to deal with sale and purchase of land and any fixed and floating charges
- If coal mining locality: coal mining search
- Chancel search: requirement to contribute to upkeep of the chancel of a church in the locality
Commercial Transactions
- Commercial Property Standard Enquiries (in place of Property Information Form which is used for residential transactions)
- Pre-printed enquiries done at the beginning of the transaction
- More comprehensive in scope than Property Information Form
- Covers such things as boundaries, rights benefitting and burdening the property, physical condition of the property, environmental issues, occupiers and employees
Planning Permission
Consent to carry out development
Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires permission to carry out any development of land.
**Development ** defined as:
- Building, engineering, mining or other operations
- Making any material change of use of any buildings or other land
May be deemed or express:
- Express: formal written application
- Deemed: certain developments allowed without needing express consent e.g. small extensions, porches, fences or conservatories (“permitted development”) - some LAs may dis-apply certain permitted developments, done by issuing Article 4 direction which would appear on buyer’s local search
Two types of express planning permission:
- Outline: gives broad permission as to the principle of development subject to ‘reserved matters’ which must be approved by the LA. If there are any reserved matters a full application is required within 3 years of the outline permission and work must start within 2 years from approval of reserved matters.
- Detailed: involves submission of full plans to LA and some conditions may continue to bind even after work is completed. Development must start within 3 years of the detailed permission
Town and Country Planning - Enforcement
If unauthorised building work took place the Local Authority has 4 years from breach to take action
Local Authority may take action against current owner for actions of previous owner
Buyer’s solicitor should advise buyer not to proceed until seller has obtained retrospective planning permission
If there has been a material change of use
Authority has 10 years from first breach to take action
Listed Buildings
Revealed on Property Information Form and in first part of local search
Appears on list maintained by Historic England
Seller should provide a copy of the notice of listing with the contract package
Listed building status does not only apply to the building itself but also to any structures or land around it
No enforcement cut-off period
Building Regulations
- Health and safety standards for construction
- Work must comply with regulations
- Local search will reveal whether building regulation consent has been properly obtained
- If works without building regulation consent: authority has 1 year from date of work to take action - however, it has unlimited jurisdiction to obtain an injunction to require unsafe work to be remedied or removed
- If a building control officer is satisfied with the completed work a building regulations certificate will be issued (a ‘final certificate’)
Enquiries of Local Authority
Regarding issues such as:
- Roads
- Public Rights of Way
- Planning
Optional Enquiries of Local Authority
- Road proposals by private bodies
- Major gas pipelines affecting property
- If property is a HMO
- Environmental pollution notices
- Property abuts common land and town or village green
Raising Enquiries
Buyer’s solicitor should not proceed to exchange of contracts until all questions have been answered to their satisfaction
Indemnity Insurance
If there has been a breach of planning laws or building regulations and the relevant enforcement period has passed, buyer might ask seller to provide indemnity insurance
Finding out about planning, listing and building regulations
Will be revealed on local search
Local search will also reveal any enforcement action that has been or is being taken by LA
Use classes for Commercial Buildings
- The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended in 2020) puts uses of land and buildings into ‘Use Classes’
- Planning permission generally not required when existing and proposed uses fall within the same Use Class (unless building work is required)
- Some changes from one Use Class to another are covered by ‘permitted development’ rights
- If property within a conservation area or is a listed building any permitted development rights will be removed
- Permitted development rights can be removed by the LA by passing an Article 4 Direction
