While you handle survey and mortgage, your conveyancer runs searches — formal checks with authorities about the property and its surroundings — and raises enquiries with the seller's side about anything unclear. This is the phase's silent stretch, where weeks pass with nothing visible happening. Understanding what is being checked, and chasing it well, keeps the silence short.
The standard searches
Three searches are near-universal: the local authority search (planning permissions and enforcement, building control history, road schemes, conservation areas); the water and drainage search (mains connections, sewers under the property — which affect extensions); and the environmental search (flood risk, contamination, ground stability, historic land use). Location adds others — mining searches in former coalfields, chancel repair liability checks near old parish churches. Turnaround varies from days to six weeks depending on the council.
The seller's paperwork and the enquiries dance
The seller completes the TA6 Property Information Form (disputes, boundaries, alterations, guarantees, flooding history) and the TA10 fixtures list; leasehold sales add the management pack (LPE1) with service charge accounts, sinking fund status and planned major works. Your conveyancer cross-examines all of it against searches and title, raising written enquiries where answers are missing or inconsistent. Each enquiry round can take a week or two — this is where transactions quietly stall, and where your weekly chasing earns its keep.
When answers are imperfect
Not every issue gets a clean answer. A missing building-regulations certificate for a 2009 extension, an un-adopted road, an ancient covenant — for many such defects the pragmatic fix is indemnity insurance: a one-off-premium policy protecting against the specific risk, often a few hundred pounds and frequently paid by the seller. It insures against consequences rather than curing the defect, which is sometimes exactly right and sometimes a fudge — ask your conveyancer which this one is.
| Search | What it reveals | Typical turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Local authority | Planning, building control, road schemes, enforcement | 1–6 weeks, council-dependent |
| Water & drainage | Mains, sewers, build-over agreements | About 1–2 weeks |
| Environmental | Flooding, contamination, ground stability | A few days |
| Location-specific (mining, chancel) | Area risks your conveyancer will advise on | Varies |
Your action list
Practical tips
- Ask the agent to lean on the seller's side for slow enquiry replies — sellers respond to their own agent faster than to your conveyancer.
- Search results that name planned roadworks or developments nearby are also useful market intelligence about the area's future.
What can go wrong
- Exchanging before satisfactory search results and enquiry replies transfers unknown legal risk to you permanently — pressure to do so deserves pushback.
- The seller's TA6 answers bind them; but 'not known' answers give little protection — treat gaps as questions, not comfort.
- PropertySquares provides education, not financial or legal advice. Verify current rules and obtain advice for your circumstances before acting.