Local land charges and a planning search

A local land charges planning search tells you what has been formally registered against the land, which is a much narrower thing than what you need to know before buying. The register is a statutory list of charges and restrictions kept under the Local Land Charges Act 1975. It records section 106 obligations, enforcement notices and tree preservation orders. It does not record planning applications, refusals, live enforcement investigations or unauthorised works, and for an investor buying a conversion or an existing house in multiple occupation, the gaps matter more than the entries.

What the local land charges register records

The register is divided into parts, each covering a category of charge. Financial charges, planning charges, listed building charges, land compensation charges, light obstruction notices and drainage charges each have their own part.

An entry is short. It names the charge, the originating authority, the date and usually a reference to the underlying document. The entry is not the document, and the document is where the obligation actually sits.

Where the register is held is changing. HM Land Registry has been taking over local land charges registers from individual councils through a migration programme, so for some areas the register sits with the Land Registry and for others it remains with the authority. Check which applies to the area before assuming where to search.

The register matters because registration binds successors. A charge properly entered runs with the land, so the buyer inherits it whether or not anyone mentioned it during the transaction.

Planning matters that appear on it

The planning entries are the ones that most often change a purchase decision.

• A planning obligation under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which the Act itself makes a local land charge
• Enforcement notices, stop notices and breach of condition notices
• Tree preservation orders
• Article 4 directions removing permitted development rights
• Orders revoking or modifying a planning permission
• Community Infrastructure Levy liability notices
• In the listed building part, building preservation notices, repairs notices and listed building enforcement notices

Several of these are worth more attention than a one-line search entry gives them. A section 106 obligation entry tells you an obligation exists, not what it requires, whether it has been complied with or whether a deed of variation has changed it. Where the obligation is restrictive or carries ongoing payments, a deed of variation under section 106A may already have altered the position, and the variation should appear as its own entry.

A levy liability notice entry is a warning rather than a bill. The sum may already have been paid, or relief may have been granted, and on a self-build dwelling the clawback period from the self-build exemption from the levy may still be running, with a disqualifying event triggering a charge if the property is sold too early.

Matters that do not appear and must be asked about

This is the part that catches buyers.

The second and third rows are where the real risk lies on a conversion. A house split into flats without permission, or an outbuilding occupied as a separate dwelling, leaves no trace on the charges register. Working out whether past works amounted to development at all is a separate exercise, and the question of operational development under section 55 is where that analysis starts.

How enforcement notices and obligations show up

An enforcement notice appears once it has been issued, not when the authority starts looking. That timing distinction is the single most useful thing to understand about the register.

So a vendor who has received a planning contravention notice, or who is in correspondence with an enforcement officer, can sell a property with a clean charges search. The notice may be issued a month after completion, and it binds the land.

Where a notice does appear, get the notice itself and the compliance history. Read the steps required, the compliance period, whether an appeal was made and whether the notice was upheld, varied or quashed. A notice that has been complied with remains on the register in many cases, which is why the entry alone tells you very little.

The practical answer is to ask the vendor directly, in writing, whether they have received any planning contravention notice, enforcement warning letter or correspondence about a suspected breach, and to keep the reply.

Conservation covenants and the register

Newer instruments are appearing on searches. A conservation covenant created under the Environment Act 2021 is an agreement with a responsible body that binds successors in title, and it is treated as a local land charge, so it can show on a search.

These matter for anyone buying land with a biodiversity commitment attached. A covenant securing habitat management for 30 years restricts what the land can be used for, and it sits alongside any planning obligation rather than replacing it.

Read the covenant rather than the entry. The responsible body, the management obligations, the monitoring requirements and the mechanism for varying or discharging the covenant are all in the document.

Reading a search result properly

Three habits separate a useful search from a filed one.

1. Request the underlying documents for every planning entry, rather than relying on the description.
2. Check the date of each entry against the planning history, because an obligation dated long before the current building suggests the permission it attaches to was never the one implemented.
3. Reconcile the entries against each other. A levy liability notice with no corresponding permission entry, or an obligation with no revocation where the scheme plainly changed, is a question rather than an inconsistency to ignore.

An official search of the register carries a statutory compensation remedy where a registered charge is wrongly omitted from the result. A personal search does not carry the same protection, which is why insurance is often used alongside it on investment purchases. If the lender will accept only an official search, that decision has already been made for you.

Questions to raise before exchange

For a landlord or investor buying an existing building, the following usually produce more than the search itself.

• Copies of every section 106 obligation and deed of variation affecting the land, with evidence that payments and obligations have been discharged
• Confirmation of the levy position, including any relief granted and any clawback period still running
• Whether an Article 4 direction affects the property, and what rights it removes
• The planning history in full, with the decision notices and the approved drawings, so the building can be checked against them
• Confirmation in writing that no enforcement correspondence has been received
• For a house in multiple occupation, the licence position and whether the use is lawful rather than merely licensed

That last point is the one investors most often get wrong. A licence from the housing team is not planning permission, and the two regimes do not check each other.

Browse the report types and start a draft if you need to evidence the planning position on a building you are buying.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with a solicitor or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.