Official or personal search: which should I use?
An official search is answered by the council itself, from its own records, and carries the council's liability for errors. A personal search is compiled by a private search company that inspects the same records, is usually quicker, and is backed by the company's insurance and, where the company subscribes to it, the Search Code, which is monitored by the Property Codes Compliance Board. Checked 20 September 2026.
Most lenders accept a regulated personal search. A minority insist on the official version, and a few accept either only with an insurance-backed guarantee. We check your lender's handbook before ordering so that the search you pay for is the one your lender will accept.
| Official search | Personal search | |
|---|---|---|
| Who answers it | The council | A private search company from the council's records |
| Turnaround | Set by the council; can be weeks | Usually days |
| Liability for errors | The council | The search company's insurance |
| Accepted by lenders | All | Most, where the provider is regulated (each lender sets its own rule in part 2 of its UK Finance handbook entry) |
| Cost | The council's fee, set by each authority | The provider's fee, usually lower |
| Best for | Lenders that require it; complex sites | Speed, where the lender accepts it |
What does the search cover, and what does it leave out?
The search covers the property itself, the land inside the red edging on the title plan, and the roads immediately abutting it. It answers standard questions and lists registered charges. It does not tell you about the field next door, an undetermined application down the street, or the condition of the building.
Where a covered item comes back adverse, the finding is rarely the end of the purchase. An unadopted road usually means checking whether a section 38 agreement or bond exists under the Highways Act 1980; a tree preservation order means consent before lopping or felling; a conservation area means tighter control over windows, doors and demolition and restricted permitted development. An enforcement notice is the serious one: the council requires something to be undone, and the obligation runs with the land to you.
| Revealed by the search | Not revealed |
|---|---|
| Planning permissions, refusals and conditions for this property | Development proposed on neighbouring land |
| Building regulation completion certificates, and their absence | Planning applications not yet determined nearby |
| Enforcement, stop, breach-of-condition and section 215 notices | What the neighbours are like or what they intend |
| Whether the road and footpath are publicly maintained | Flood, contamination or mining risk, separate searches |
| Conservation area, listing, tree preservation and smoke control orders | The physical condition of the building, that is a survey |
| Financial charges owed to the council | Rights of way and covenants, those are on the title register |
What if the extension has no planning permission or building regulation approval?
It depends on how old the work is. In England the limit for building, engineering or mining operations, and for conversion to a single dwelling, is now ten years, under section 171B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as amended by section 115 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, which commenced on 25 April 2024. That change is not retrospective: regulation 5 of the commencement instrument, SI 2024/452, keeps the old four year limit where the operations were substantially completed, or the change of use happened, before that date, so older work in England can still be immune after four years. In Wales the limit for those breaches is still four years. Every other breach has been ten years in both countries all along, under section 171B(3). Checked 20 September 2026. Work older than the limit is generally immune from enforcement, though a certificate of lawfulness is the proper way to prove it. Building regulation enforcement runs on its own clock, and the Building Safety Act 2022 lengthened it sharply. A council can now serve a notice under section 36 of the Building Act 1984 requiring work to be altered or removed up to ten years after it was completed, where the old window was far shorter. That ten years has applied in England since 1 October 2023 and in Wales since 1 July 2026, so it now bites in both countries. Checked 20 September 2026.
Where work is recent, the options are a retrospective application, a regularisation certificate, or a price adjustment to reflect the risk. Where it is old, indemnity insurance is usually cheaper and quicker than any of them. Our guide to what indemnity insurance does and does not do explains the limits.