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Local Land Charge Searches
A Local Land Charge Search should be carried out when a property or piece of land is being sold, purchased, leased or valued to find out if there are any matters affecting the land.
Searches are usually carried out in two parts. The first part of the Search (LLC1) deals with all registerable charges, such as grants, tree preservation orders, planning agreements, and listed buildings and some enforcement issues. The second part (CON29) deals with issues such as road schemes, planning history and environmental matters.
Drainage enquiries are dealt with by Southern Water. Highways enquires are dealt with by East Sussex County Council – www.eastsussex.gov.uk
The information given on a search relates only to the property or land identified on the search plan. The Council does not provide information regarding surrounding property or land unless this is specifically requested.
The Council's target for responding to basic searches is 5 working days from the date of acceptance of a correctly completed request.
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Electronic Submission of a Search (NLIS)
Electronic searches can be submitted through the National Land Information Service Hub (NLIS). Hastings Borough Council is currently at Level 3 which means that we can receive and return electronic searches.
If you wish to use this service, you will need to make arrangements with a NLIS Licenced Channel Provider for the submission of your searches.
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Paper submission of a Search
When requesting a full Local Land Charges Search you should include either forms LLC1 and CON29 (these forms are obtainable from Solicitors or Law Stationers) or use the Search Request form. You must include an up to date plan showing the area to be searched in red. You should also send the relevant payment.
The CON29 is divided into two parts:
CON29R: Required Enquiries
These are the standard enquiries of the Local Authority.
CON29O: Optional Enquiries
These are optional standard enquiries.
You should clearly mark in the relevant box if you want answers to these enquiries. There is an additional fee for each of these enquiries.
Additional enquiries
These should be printed out and attached to the original search. Questions must be clear – queries such as 'in the vicinity' or 'likely to affect the enjoyment' are too vague. Remember to include the necessary search fee for each enquiry.
Information about other roads, footpaths (Box C)
These roads must be clearly identified in Box C and marked on the plan. The Council will not accept phrases such as 'all abutting'.
Payment
We can accept payments:
- by cheque made payable to 'Hastings Borough Council'
- by credit/debit card by telephone or by visiting the Corporate Archive.
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Search Fees
Following a cost recovery exercise, Hastings Borough Council has decided not to increase Local Land Charges fees for 2011/2012.
LLC1
- Official Search of the Land Charges Register (paper): £30
- Official Search of the Land Charges Register (electronic via NLIS): £29
- Official Search of any Single Part of the Register: £3.00
- Additional Parcels of Land: £3.00
CON 29
- Part 1 Search including LLC1 (paper): £175
- Part 1 Search including LLC1 (electronic via NLIS): £144
- Part 2 Additional enquiries (except Question 22): £10 each
- Part 2 Common Land additional enquiry (Question 22): £14
- Other additional enquiries: £20
- Additional Parcels of Land: £12
- Fee Calculations for Individual CON29R questions (.pdf 138KB)
Personal Search
Register Services
- Registration of a charge in Part 11 of the Register: price on application
- Filing of a definitive certificate of the Lands Tribunal under Rule 10 (3): price on application
- Filing a judgement, order or application for the variation or cancellation of any entry in Part 11 of the register: price on application
- Office copy of any entry in the register (not including a copy or extract of any plan or document): £5
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Personal Searches
This is an inspection of the Local Land Charges Register held at our Corporate Archive. Please note that a Personal Search does not provide all the information given on a full (LLC1 and CON29R) search. It is the responsibility of the person carrying out the Personal Search to identify the land/property and to make any note of information held on the Register.
The Local Land Charges Register is available at the corporate archive facility to persons wishing to carry out a Personal Search at the following times:
- Monday to Friday: 9.00 to 12.30 and 13.30 to 16.30
Appointments will be offered for strict half hour time slots on a first come first served basis. If you are late or miss your appointment you may be asked to re-arrange at a later time or date. To make an appointment to view the register, please send a completed search request form and plan of the site to be searched for each property to landchar@hastings.gov.uk stating your preferred date and appointment time.
It may be helpful for you to look at the Council Tax and Business Rates lists at www.voa.gov.uk before booking your search especially in respect of flats and businesses. This may prevent further clarification being sought and will ensure that the correct information is made available to you.
The Highway agreement between Hastings Borough Council and East Sussex County Council ended on 24 March 2011 and we are no longer able to respond to Highways enquiries for Personal Searches.
Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for the information required to answer the following questions:
- 2: Roads
- 3.2: Land to be acquired for road works
- 3.4: Nearby road schemes
- 3.5: Nearby railway schemes
- 3.6: Traffic schemes
- 3.7 (e): Outstanding notices (Highways only)
- 3.11: Compulsory purchase orders (Highways only)
- 4: Road proposals by private bodies
- 5: Public paths or byeways
- 22: Registered common land and town or village greens
CON29R: required questions
Some of the answers to CON29R questions are publicly available free of charge. You may require an appointment with the relevant departments, in which case you should contact them direct. We are working towards electronic storage of all data but in the meantime there are many sources of information which are stored in paper archives, often in separate buildings to the ones in which we work and therefore you may be asked to give us a few days notice of your appointment.
For answers to questions that are not publicly available, you will need to complete a Search Request Form and submit this to the Local Land Charges Team who will liaise with departments and collate the required information on your behalf. We are offering two levels of service:
- a printed report that you can view and take notes from or
- an official copy of the information which you can take away
We believe this is the most efficient manner to deal with such enquiries and will ensure that the cost of the data is the same whether the search is carried out by Hastings Borough Council or as part of a private search and will also ensure that all searches are dealt with equally in turn.
Should you wish to obtain copies of documents such as orders or notices relevant to your search, you should contact the appropriate department directly.
1.1 (a,b,c,d,e) Planning decisions
This information is contained in the Planning Property files that form our Planning Register. We are currently working to make this information electronic and where possible, a printed extract from the Planning Register will be made available. Either way, this information is available for free inspection at the Corporate Archive If you wish to view this, please indicate as appropriate on the search request form. Planning decision notices from 1949 to present day can also be viewed on-line although they are not searchable by address. Both Planning Applications and Decision Notices can also be viewed in the Planning area.
Building Regulation information on Planning Property files is not comprehensive or maintained.
Alternatively, this information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
1.1 (f) Building Regulations Approvals
Information post 1997 can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
The Council holds some Building regulation and building byelaw decision notices for the period 1974 to 1997. These are held in Development Control files. The Building Regulation information on these files is not comprehensive or maintained but is available to view, free of charge at the Corporate Archive.
For queries relating to Building Control please contact Hastings and Rother Building Control Partnership.
1.1 (g) Building Regulations Completion Certificates
Information post 1997 (with the following exception) can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
From 01 April 2002 to 31 December 2004, the installation of a replacement window, rooflight or roof window or specified type of glazed door could be carried out and certified by a person who was registered under the Fenestration Self-Assessment Scheme by the Glass and Glazing Federation (as an alternative to certifying by Building Control). The Council did not issue and was not provided with copies of certificates or notices issued in respect of such work; the owner or occupier should hold them. The Council holds data of the existence of such work, but it is not in a readily searchable form, therefore its existence is not revealed in a local land charges search.
1.1 (h) Building Regulations Competent Persons Self-Certification Scheme
Information post 1997 can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property. Please note that the Council does not issue and is not provided with copies of certificates or notices issued in respect of work carried out under Competent Person (self-certification) Schemes. The owner or occupier of the property should hold such certificates. The Council is notified after such work has been carried out and the existence of such notification would be revealed in any local land charges search of the property.
The initial Notices register is available by appointment from Building Control.
1.2. Planning Designations and Proposals
A complete set of the relevant documents comprising the Hastings Local Plan 2004 can be obtained from either the Planning Policy team or Hastings Information Centre priced at £30 (plus £5 postage and packaging). Individual documents can be purchased on request. The documents are also available in the Local Plan section.
The Hastings Local Plan will gradually be replaced by a new set of planning documents – the Local Development Framework. A Statement of Community Involvement has been adopted and work is progressing on 'The Core Strategy' and the 'Site Allocations Development Plan Document'.
Hastings Local Plan was formally adopted by the Borough Council on 14 April 2004. The 2004 Local Plan is the statutory local plan for Hastings Borough. It sets out a framework of policies to guide and encourage development in Hastings Borough, whilst safeguarding and enhancing the environment. The Plan has two main functions - to set out the Council's policies for the control of development in the Borough and to make proposals for the development and use of land, and to allocate land for specific purposes. The Local Plan is the main policy document referred to by the Council when determining planning applications.
As from 27 September 2007, a number of policies in the Adopted Hastings Local Plan 2004 expired and are therefore not relevant. This was approved by the Secretary of State under paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 8 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.
This information can also be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
2. (a) Roads
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
2. (b, c, d) Roads
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
3.1 Land Required for Public Purposes
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
3.2 Land to be acquired for Road Works
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
3.3 (a) Drainage Agreements and Consents
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
Customers should also contact Southern Water.
3.3 (b) Drainage agreements and consents
This information is held on the Local Land Charges Register.
Alternatively, this information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property. Customers should also contact Southern Water.
3.4 (a, b, c, d, e, f) Nearby road schemes
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
3.5: Nearby railway schemes
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
3.6: Traffic schemes
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
3.7 (a, b, c, d, f): Outstanding notices
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
3.7 (e): Outstanding notices
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
3.8: Contravention of Building Regulations
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
3.9: Notices, orders, directions and proceedings under Planning Acts
Notices that have been served, made or commenced will be held either on the Local Land Register, the Planning Register or the Enforcement Register for notices served after 2001.
Please note that none of these registers will hold information with regard to notices that we have decided to issue, serve, make or commence but have not actually done so yet. For this reason it is recommended that you do not rely solely on inspecting the above registers to reply to this question.
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form.
3.10 (a): Conservation Area
Old Town, Burtons' St Leonards, Blacklands Conservation Areas were designated before 31 August 1974.
A list of the properties contained within these areas can be found in our Conservation Area pages.
Alternatively, this information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
3.10 (b): Conservation Area
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
3.11: Compulsory Purchase
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
3.12 (a, b(ii)): Contaminated Land
This information is freely available by appointment from Environmental Services.
Alternatively, it can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
3.12 (b(i), c): Contaminated Land
This information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
3.13: Radon Gas
This information can be obtained from www.ukradon.org
Alternatively, this information can be purchased using the Search Request Form for the specified property.
CON29O: Optional enquiries
Standard additional enquiries can be requested using the Search Request Form.
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
Box C enquiries
Box C enquiries can be freely answered by viewing the highways map books available at the Corporate Archive.
Alternatively, this information can be purchased by asking an Additional Question on the Search Request Form for the specified property.
Hastings Borough Council are unable to provide this information. Visit www.eastsussex.gov.uk for further information.
Additional Enquiries
Further additional enquiries can be requested using the Search Request Form.
Delivery of Services
We will endeavour to make all Public Registers available the next working day, however this may not be possible where demand for services is high. In such cases you will be offered the next available appointment time.
We have a Local Perfomance Indicator of 5 working days to turn around all searches including searches submitted using the Search Request Form. Our current search turn around times can be heard by phoning 01424 451093 and selecting option 4. All searches will be dealt with on a first come first served basis.
Results of searches will not be delivered in any form until payment has been received.
Department Contacts and Locations:
At the Corporate Archive:
At Aquila House:
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Search Request form
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Contact Information
Please contact us for further advice or information on any matter related to Land Charges.
