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 such as planning permissions or listed buildings. The local land charges search will reveal whether a property is subject to a charge which then informs a buyer’s decision to buy a property or parcel of land.
From 1 October 2019, anyone requiring Local Land Charges (LLC) searches in the borough of Lambeth will need to get them from HM Land Registry rather than going directly to the council.
Councillor Andy Wilson, Lambeth Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said:
“Lambeth is the fourth most densely populated borough in London which means we have a huge variety of different kinds of Land Charges, both residential and commercial. These include many world-famous tourist attractions such as the London Eye, the Imperial War Museum and Lambeth Palace. We are pleased to be at the forefront of this digital transformation which will help speed up property transactions for all of our customers.”
Karina Singh, Director of Transformation at HM Land Registry, said:
“Colleagues at Lambeth Council and HM Land Registry have worked closely together to migrate their complex and large dataset to our national digital LLC Register. The transfer of Lambeth’s service marks a significant milestone in the government’s ambition to make home-buying faster, simpler and cheaper for everyone.”
Now that they have been migrated, anyone will be able to get instant online search results via GOV.UK using the Search for Local Land Charges service.
HM Land Registry’s business customers can use their existing portal and Business Gateway channels or their usual search providers to access Local Land Charges data for those local authorities which have migrated.
This work has also been entered for an LGC award with help from Gerard Kamath and Alison McKane, with HM Land Registry giving us a testimonial for the entry.
