When you sell a property in England, you do not normally have to order any searches yourself. Searches are part of the buyer's legal work: once you accept an offer, the buyer's solicitor or conveyancer arranges them, and GOV.UK lists arranging and paying for searches as one of the buyer's jobs. The usual set is a local authority search, a drainage and water search and an environmental search, with extra searches where the location calls for them.
Sellers still have a part to play, because the results often raise questions you will need to answer. This guide explains what each search covers, how local searches work in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, and how you can stop searches causing delays.
An offer in England is not legally binding until contracts are exchanged, and the final contract is only prepared once the buyer and their solicitor are satisfied with the outcome of their enquiries and searches. Searches check things a viewing cannot show, such as planning history, roads, rights of way, drainage and environmental risks. If they turn up something unexpected, the buyer may ask for more documents or try to renegotiate. The government's June 2026 reform roadmap notes that issues such as planning constraints and flood risk are often discovered only after an offer has been accepted, when time and money have already been spent.
GOV.UK's guide to selling says that once you have accepted an offer, the buyer's solicitor or conveyancer will arrange searches and a review of the property's title, and its guide to buying says buyers usually pay for searches up front. For a sense of cost, Greater Cambridge Shared Planning charges £203 for a full residential local search (the LLC1 register search plus the CON29 enquiries) under its fee schedule from 1 April 2026, with other searches on top. A seller normally pays only if they choose to order searches themselves.
The form names in brackets are the standard forms used. If you are also buying, our guide to the searches needed when you buy a house looks at them from the buyer's side.
The first part is a search of the Local Land Charges Register (LLC1), which records restrictions and obligations such as conditional planning permissions, listed building status, conservation areas, tree preservation orders and smoke control zones. HM Land Registry points out that a property is bound by a local land charge whether or not it has been registered. The second part is a set of enquiries of the council (CON29) about matters such as compulsory purchase orders and nearby proposals like new roads.
In Greater Cambridge, the full search reveals planning applications, planning agreements, Article 4 directions, tree preservation orders, enforcement notices, building control applications for the last 15 years, basic highway information, environmental health information and public rights of way. In practice, the buyer's solicitor will see your planning and building control history, so expect to be asked for the approvals and certificates for any work it lists.
CON29O is a list of optional questions the buyer's solicitor can add where relevant, such as road proposals, completion notices, noise abatement, houses in multiple occupation, common land, and flood defence and land drainage consents. Greater Cambridge charges £20 for most of them.
This search provides, in the Law Society's words, key information for prospective buyers about water and sewage services. If your property is not on mains drainage, tell your solicitor at the start so the details are ready when the buyer asks.
An environmental search reports on environmental risks to the land, which can include flood risk and ground stability as well as possible contamination. GOV.UK's flood risk service shows an area's long term risk from rivers and the sea, surface water, reservoirs and groundwater, although not how likely an individual property is to flood. If your home has flooded, tell your agent and solicitor at the outset rather than leaving it for a search to raise.
Chancel repair liability is an old obligation on some landowners to pay for repairs to the chancel of an Anglican parish church. It lost its automatic protection under the Land Registration Act 2002 on 13 October 2013, so a buyer of registered land for value after that date takes it free of the liability unless it is protected on the register. If the land is unregistered, the liability can bind it until first registration, which a sale triggers, and the new owner then takes free of it unless it is protected on the register at that point. But HM Land Registry is clear that until the property is sold, any liability that exists continues, which is why chancel repair can still come up in a sale.
GOV.UK says a solicitor or conveyancer will usually do a coal mining search for property in an affected area, and the Mining Remediation Authority offers a free postcode check that says whether a mining report is needed. Its coal mining reporting area map does not extend into Cambridgeshire, so a coal mining report is not normally needed for a home in or around Cambridge, though the free check will confirm this for any address. The government's reform consultation also mentions other locality-specific risks, giving chalk as an example; if a search or survey flags a ground stability issue, ask your solicitor what it means for the sale.
Searches sit alongside checks of the legal title held by HM Land Registry. The title register shows who owns the property, any rights of way and whether a mortgage has been paid off, and the title summary names any lender with a mortgage on it. If you have owned your home since before 1990 and not mortgaged it since, it might not be registered at all, which makes your paper deeds essential.
You do not need to clear your mortgage before you sell: on completion, your solicitor pays off the mortgage and any other secured debts from the sale money. Shortly before completion, the buyer's solicitor makes an official search of the register at HM Land Registry, which protects the buyer's registration for a priority period of 30 working days. Our guide to the stages of conveyancing shows where each step fits.
Under the Infrastructure Act 2015, local land charges registers in England and Wales are moving from councils to HM Land Registry in stages. Where a council has moved, the LLC1 part comes from HM Land Registry's online service, which gives instant results and charges £15 for an official search (a personal search is free). The council still answers the CON29 enquiries.
HM Land Registry's list of transferred councils (updated 18 September 2026) includes East Cambridgeshire (5 December 2022), Fenland (6 September 2022) and Peterborough (31 January 2020), but not Cambridge City Council or South Cambridgeshire District Council. For homes in those two districts, the official search still comes from Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, which processes searches in the order received, with no fast-track service. The June 2026 roadmap commits to completing the national register by 2028. If you are not sure which council covers your home, GOV.UK's find your local council service will tell you.
An official search is a certified result from the body that keeps the register. A personal search is where someone inspects the register without receiving a certificate: Greater Cambridge offers free personal searches of its register by email appointment, and says no Official Certificate of Search is provided afterwards. The difference matters if something is missed. Under section 10 of the Local Land Charges Act 1975, a buyer who relied on an official search can claim compensation if an existing charge was not shown on the certificate, whether or not it had been registered; after a personal search the right is narrower. The buyer's solicitor and lender decide which they need.
Search indemnity insurance, sometimes called no-search insurance, is a policy taken out in place of one or more searches, for example when a search is delayed or has expired. It does not reveal what a search would have shown; it only provides cover on its terms. The UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook shows that some lenders do not accept search insurance on purchases of existing homes and others accept it only on conditions. It is a decision for the buyer and their solicitor, not something a seller needs to arrange.
Searches are usually ordered once the offer is accepted, so a slow search can hold up exchange. Greater Cambridge Shared Planning says it will get back to you within 10 working days of receiving a full official local search. The government's reform consultation notes that the search provider Landmark reported transactions in its early-ordering project were on average four weeks faster than average; the figure is Landmark's own. For the bigger picture, see our guide to how long solicitors take to process a house sale.
In its home buying and selling reform roadmap (updated 19 June 2026), the government said it will legislate, when parliamentary time allows, to require a sales pack to be prepared before a property is listed, including searches and a property condition report. Sellers would keep overall responsibility for the pack, with professionals gathering and checking the information. This sits in the roadmap's longer-term timetable, by the end of this Parliament; in the meantime the government plans guidance and is working with industry on information sellers can provide voluntarily now.
If you are planning a sale, an accurate valuation of your home and early instruction of your solicitor are sensible first steps.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Speak to a solicitor or licensed conveyancer about your own circumstances.
The buyer's solicitor normally orders a local authority search (LLC1 and CON29), a drainage and water search (CON29DW) and an environmental search, plus optional enquiries and location-specific searches such as coal mining where relevant. You answer the questions they raise.
Not usually. GOV.UK lists arranging and paying for searches as part of the buyer's process. A seller normally pays only if they choose to order searches themselves.
Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, which handles local searches for Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire, says it will get back to you within 10 working days of receiving a full official search and does not offer a fast-track service.
Not yet. HM Land Registry's list, updated 18 September 2026, includes East Cambridgeshire, Fenland and Peterborough but not Cambridge City or South Cambridgeshire. The government aims to complete the national register by 2028.
It is a buyer's search, and the Mining Remediation Authority's coal mining reporting area does not cover Cambridgeshire, so one is not normally needed. Its free online postcode check confirms this for a specific address.
Yes. Searches can be ordered as soon as you instruct a solicitor, which can save time. The buyer's solicitor and lender decide whether to rely on them, and they may need refreshing if they are too old by completion.
