When you sell a house in England or Wales, the buyer normally pays for the searches. 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, with the cost usually paid up front. A seller normally pays for searches only by choice, for example by ordering them before a buyer is found, or when selling at auction, where the seller's solicitor prepares a legal pack that may include them.
This guide covers who pays for each search, what the main searches cost in Cambridge, when the money is paid and the exceptions. For what each search covers and how the results can affect a sale, see our guide to the searches needed when selling a property. GOV.UK's guidance on buying and selling covers England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules.
Searches are enquiries the buyer's solicitor makes about things a viewing cannot show, such as planning history, roads, drainage and environmental risks. GOV.UK says they usually include a local authority search, a water and drainage search and an environmental search. You do not order or pay for these in a normal sale, but the buyer's solicitor will ask you about anything the results raise, and GOV.UK notes that a legal professional can advise you on how to answer.
In a normal sale the buyer pays for every search below. The buyer's solicitor pays the fees to the council and other providers and passes them on as disbursements, which the Solicitors Regulation Authority defines as costs paid to a third party on the client's behalf.
The local search has two parts: a search of the Local Land Charges Register (LLC1) and the council's answers to a standard set of enquiries (CON29). For homes in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, both come from Greater Cambridge Shared Planning. Its fee schedule from 1 April 2026 charges £203 for a full residential search, made up of £47 for the LLC1 search and £156 for the CON29 enquiries. Most optional extra enquiries on form CON29O cost £20 each, with a few at £24 or £47.04.
Elsewhere in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough the cost is split differently. HM Land Registry has taken over the local land charges register for some councils, including East Cambridgeshire, Fenland and Peterborough, and charges £15 for an official search of it, while the council still answers the CON29 enquiries. East Cambridgeshire District Council, for example, charges £162.30 for the full CON29 from 1 April 2026. HM Land Registry's list of transferred councils, updated on 18 September 2026, does not include Cambridge City or South Cambridgeshire, and the government's June 2026 roadmap aims to complete the national register by 2028.
The drainage and water search (form CON29DW) gives, in the Law Society's words, key information for prospective buyers about water and sewage services. Prices vary by provider, so we have not quoted a figure.
An environmental search reports on environmental risks, which can include flood risk and ground stability. It is the third search GOV.UK says is usually ordered, and the buyer pays for it. Prices depend on the provider and the report chosen.
GOV.UK says a solicitor or conveyancer will usually do a coal mining search where a property is in an affected area. Checking whether a report is needed is free through the Mining Remediation Authority's postcode search, and reports start at £27 plus VAT. The authority's coal mining reporting area 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.
Searches are ordered once an offer has been accepted, and GOV.UK says buyers usually have to pay for them up front. So the cost falls at the start of the legal work, not at completion.
That timing matters if a sale falls through. Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, for example, offers a refund only if cancellation is requested and agreed before the search is recorded and accepted. The government's October 2025 reform consultation said around one in three transactions fail, costing buyers and sellers around £400 million a year in wasted costs.
Searches also go out of date. The UK Finance Mortgage Lenders' Handbook says that searches, other than those with a priority period, must not be more than six months old at completion, and individual lenders set their own detailed requirements. A slow sale can therefore mean searches need to be refreshed or validated before completion.
You can choose to order searches yourself to save time, in which case you pay for them. The October 2025 consultation describes a service that lets searches be ordered as soon as a buyer or seller instructs a solicitor, and 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.
The buyer's solicitor and lender decide whether to accept searches you supply. Under section 10 of the Local Land Charges Act 1975, a buyer has the same compensation rights on an official local land charges search made by someone else, provided the buyer or their agent knew its contents before contracts were made. Lenders' age limits still apply, so early searches may need refreshing. If you want the buyer to repay the cost, agree it through your solicitors at the outset.
Auction works differently. The RICS consumer guide to property auctions explains that the seller's solicitor provides a legal pack before the sale, and that it may include local searches. At a traditional auction, the winning bidder exchanges contracts immediately, so there is no time for searches afterwards; Propertymark advises buyers to ask their own solicitor to do searches before the auction if they are not in the pack.
A seller who pays for searches for the legal pack may not carry the cost in the end. RICS says the charges a seller makes on an auction buyer may include a buyer's premium or a charge to cover the seller's legal and surveying costs, and that these should be disclosed in the special conditions of sale. Propertymark likewise lists legal pack costs, such as searches, among the fees buyers should check for.
Buying a new build follows the same pattern: the buyer's solicitor orders the searches and the buyer pays. If the buyer has a mortgage and the developer contributes to their legal fees, the lender has to be told. The seller of a new build must complete the UK Finance Disclosure Form, which goes to the solicitor acting for the buyer's mortgage lender, and the form lists legal fees among the financial incentives to be disclosed. Our guide to buying a new-build home in Cambridge covers the rest of the process.
Search indemnity insurance, sometimes called no-search insurance, is a policy taken out in place of one or more searches, for example where a search is delayed or has expired. It does not reveal what a search would have shown. Because it stands in for the buyer's searches, it is a decision for the buyer's solicitor and lender, not something a seller needs to arrange. Lenders differ: the Lenders' Handbook shows some accept it, some accept it only on remortgages and some do not accept it on purchases of existing homes.
This may change, but the plans published so far need new legislation. In its home buying and selling reform roadmap, published on 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 preparing the pack, with professionals gathering and checking the information. The measure 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 sales pack information that can be provided voluntarily now.
The roadmap does not settle who will pay for the searches in a sales pack. It records that respondents' concerns included increased costs for sellers, and says the government will carry out an impact assessment before any legislation. The earlier consultation estimated that what it called final sellers would face £310 of extra upfront costs, which it put down to upfront assessments and surveys, while first-time buyers would save around £710 and home movers around £400 per transaction. Until the law changes, the buyer still normally pays for searches.
Selling has its own costs. GOV.UK says that on completion your solicitor or conveyancer pays off your mortgage and any secured debts, any outstanding estate agent fees and their own fee, then sends you the balance. Our guide to who pays for the seller's solicitor covers legal fees in more detail.
You can stop the buyer's searches slowing your sale by instructing a solicitor early, gathering your planning and building regulation paperwork and flagging anything a search is likely to reveal. For homes in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, Greater Cambridge Shared Planning says it will get back to you within 10 working days of receiving a full official search, and it does not offer a fast-track service. If you are thinking of selling, a valuation of your home is a sensible first step.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Speak to a solicitor or licensed conveyancer about your own circumstances.
Not normally. 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, or when selling at auction.
Greater Cambridge Shared Planning charges £203 for a full residential local search from 1 April 2026. The drainage and water search and the environmental search are extra, and their prices depend on the provider.
Searches are ordered after an offer is accepted, and GOV.UK says buyers usually pay for them up front, not at completion.
The seller's solicitor provides a legal pack before the auction, which may include local searches. RICS says the seller's charges to the buyer can include a charge to cover the seller's legal costs, disclosed in the special conditions of sale.
Not necessarily. Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, for example, refunds a local search only if cancellation is requested and agreed before the search is recorded and accepted. Ask the provider or your solicitor about other searches.
Possibly. The government's June 2026 roadmap plans to require sales packs, including searches, before a property is listed, with sellers responsible for preparing them. That needs new legislation, and the roadmap does not say who will pay.
