Watford Borough Council

When you buy a house, your solicitor will make a search of the Council's records to ensure there are no hidden surprises, such as motorways at the bottom of your garden or outstanding Notices requiring you to take action to remedy an earlier wrong doing.

Official local land charge searches

The Local Land Charge Section carries out all official searches covered by the Local Land charges Act 1975, guaranteeing comprehensive replies to the official LLC1 and CON29 enquiries.

The Law Society, which regulates solicitors, encourages the use of official searches and considers that alternative personal searches of the statutory register, disclosing only limited information, should only be undertaken with the approval of the client when time does not permit official searches. You are advised to confirm with your solicitor that an official search has been undertaken and to inspect the Certificate of Official Search.

There are three parts:-

LLC1 - this first part, the Official Certificate of Search Form , deals with all the registerable charges, for example financial charges (registered against the property by the local authority), improvement grants, tree preservation orders, conditional planning consents and agreements.

CON29R - the second part called Enquiries of Local Authorities Form deals with issues such as road schemes, the planning history of the property and various notices which affect the property.

CON29O - the third part includes further (optional) enquiries.

Please note that applications must include the following when submitted in order to be accepted for processing:-

If submitted by a solicitor, cheques drawn on the solicitor's client account are requested, made out with the correct amount, see fees below, Clients own cheques are not accepted as a method of payment.  

A requisition for Search (form LLC1) and enquiries forms (CON29R and CON29O if required) in duplicate  and three copies of a plan, sufficient to enable easy identification on an ordnance survey map should be sent to:
 
Land Charges Officer
Planning and Development
Town Hall
Watford  WD17 3EX

or DX 51529 Watford 2

What are the fees?

How to request a search

There are full instructions on the Local Land Charge Search forms. Your solicitor will have these forms or you can buy them from law stationers.

Applications should be sent to:

Land Charges
Planning and Development
Watford Borough Council
Town Hall
Watford  WD17 3EX

or

DX 51529 Watford 2

Alternatively, requisitions can be submitted electronically via the National Land Information Service (NLIS). Their website (www.nlis.org.uk) gives details.

Our commitment to you

We aim to return all official searches within 5 working days and in any case within 10 working days.