Local land charges

When you buy a house, your solicitor will make a search of our 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.

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.

The search will be in two parts

LLC1 - Official Certificate of Search form

This includes any charges or restrictions listed in the Local Land Charges Register. For example, if there are any

  • financial charges
  • tree preservation orders
  • listed buildings
  • conditional planning consents and agreements 
  • land sits within a conservation area

Our Local Land Charges Register has been migrated to HM Land Registry’s national register. You can do a search on the HM Land Registry portal or on GOV.UK.

CON29

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.

Searches must include the following when submitted to be accepted for processing:

  • If a search is submitted by a solicitor, cheques drawn on the solicitor's client account are requested, made out with the correct amount to Trafford Borough Council. Clients' own cheques are accepted as a method of payment. Make sure the client's address and cheque card number are shown on the reverse of the cheque. 
  • The correct address quoted together with an up to date scale plan in duplicate showing the extent and location of the land subject of search, clearly edged in red.

Water searches

United Utilities looks after the network of public sewers in Trafford. If you are asking for a search to be undertaken or you are waiting to undertake a personal search, contact your water company.

CON29 enquiries questionnaire

The CON29 enquiries questionnaire, which forms part of the official search, contains many 'Warning' questions, the answers to which you will not find on any of the statutory registers.

Examples of the information only to be found by submitting a CON29 are:

  • Compulsory Purchase Orders
  • Proposed Tree Preservation Orders
  • Many informal notices under planning and highways laws not found on any register
  • Road proposals or schemes (including road widening)
  • Proposed enforcement action or breach of conditions notices

If you rely on a personal search from a solicitor or personal search company may we remind you that they are not given, or entitled to receive, answers to the questions on the CON 29, and any information they do obtain is not covered by Section 10(3) of the Local Land Charges Act 1975 which relates to compensation for loss. The only way to receive this information is to submit the official LLC1 form and CON 29 questions.

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. Both the LLC1 and CON29 forms should be submitted at the same time if answers to both are required. We are currently taking 20 working days to respond.

Service fees

Searches must include VAT where appropriate and a VAT receipt will be supplied with the completed search:

Table of land search costs
 ServiceNET AmountVATTotal

Full search

£74

 £10.09

 £84.09

CON29R

£50.45

 £10.09

£60.54 

CON29O except 5 & 22

£12

 £2.40

£14.40 

CON290 5& 22

£15

 £3

 £18

Own question

£15

 £3

£18 

 Extra parcels CON29

 £19

 £3.80

£22.80 

Basis of charging

These charges are based on estimates of the costs of maintenance and provision of the information, including salary and on-costs, appropriate overhead and capital costs, and on an estimate of the number of access to property records requests received.

Question 8 – Pipelines:

We no longer provide a response to Con 29O question 8. Refer to the following links for up to date information on pipelines:

If you require less than a full search, submit the relevant Con29 questions required and the relevant fee to the Land Charges Section. View the charges for each question.

Use the following form to indicate which questions you wish to be answered: Request for response to Con29 individual questions. Use this link for information relating to viewing  Con29 data free of charge.

Making a personal search

A Personal Search is an inspection of the Local Land Charges Register. A Personal Search does not provide all the information given on a full (LLC1 and CON 29) search. This service is provided free of charge.

Personal searches are available on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with a limit of 5 addresses. Personal searches of the Local Land Register are available by using our online local land charges service

Access to other property information

Some information is available for inspection free of charge by viewing the public registers. The Planning online service allows you to view associated plans and documents for an application. The statutory register is available to view at Sale Waterside.

The register of Highways maintainable at public expense is publicly available for inspection. View adopted roads on an interactive map

For information on public rights of way (PROW), flood risk and drainage email traffordhighwaysearches@amey.co.uk.