Local Land Charges

Information about the Local Land Charges service, including searches, the National Land Information Service (NLIS) and CON29 enquiries.

Local Land Charges Service

The Council has a statutory duty to maintain the Register of Local Land Charges affecting land and property in its District. This protects purchasers and mortgagees from being caught unaware and becoming liable for financial or other obligations or restrictions that are enforceable against successive owners or occupiers of the land/property. The Local Land Charges department also processes searches of the Local Land Charges Register and requests for replies to CON29 Enquiries.

Local Land Charges Searches

There are various ways to search the Local Land Charges Register and request CON29 Enquiries. Some of the CON29 information is available for free by personal inspection of statutory registers and public records, or it can be purchased by use of the appropriate form. For official searches, forms LLC1, CON29R and CON29O are available in paper and electronic format from legal stationers. For a partial CON29 search, please refer to the CON29R Required Enquiries section below. For a personal search of the Local Land Charges Register, please see our Personal Searches page.

A "standard" official search is in two parts. The first part (form LLC1) deals with all registered local land charges, such as conditional planning permissions, tree preservation orders, conservation areas, listed buildings etc. The second part (form CON29R) deals with enquiries regarding planning matters, building regulations, highway matters and some environmental matters (drainage enquiries are dealt with by Southern Water Services Ltd).

The information given in reply to a search relates only to the land/property identified on the search request and plan.

The Council’s target for responding to "standard" searches is 6 working days from the date of acceptance of a correctly completed request.

Submission of an official search

When applying for an official search you should use forms LLC1 and CON29R (and CON29O if required). Two Ordnance Survey or Land Registry location plans should also be submitted showing the land/property to be searched clearly outlined in red. A separate form is required for each search (subject to the additional parcels section below). Unless your search is being submitted electronically via NLIS, a cheque made payable to "Lewes District Council" for the correct fee should also be attached (see our Local Land Charges Fees page). Paper search applications can be sent via post or DX to:

Local Land Charges,
Lewes District Council,
32 High Street,
Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN7 2LX
DX 3118 LEWES 1

National Land Information Service (NLIS)

NLIS offer a way of sending and receiving searches and payments electronically, via a number of licensed NLIS channel providers. The Council has a differential pricing policy for searches received via NLIS and if you have not yet made arrangements for the submission of your searches this way, we recommend you contact the NLIS channel providers for information on their services and how to participate.

CON29R Required Enquiries

All these enquiries are replied to for the "standard" search fee. When completing the CON29R form for an official search, please be aware of the following:

Box C - Information about other roadways, footways and footpaths:
Relevant roads etc. should be clearly named in Box C and/or marked on your plan. The Council cannot reply to phrases such as "all those abutting the property".

The Local Authorities (Charges for Property Searches) Regulations 2008 enable local authorities to recover the costs of providing access to property search data and answering enquiries about a property, e.g. a local authority produced CON29 report. Our new fee structure means you are now also able to request replies to specific CON29 questions individually by submission of our Local Land Charges Search Request Form and payment of the necessary fee. Please refer to our Search Request Form and Guidance Notes, and our Local Land Charges Fees page.

CON29O Optional Enquiries

These further enquiries may be made at the discretion of the applicant. You should clearly mark in the relevant box on the appropriate form if you want replies to any of these enquiries and include the necessary fee for each enquiry (see our Local Land Charges Fees page).

Additional enquiries

The Council will endeavour to answer these enquiries, which should be clearly typed on an additional page and attached to your official search. Questions must be clear and not include subjective terms such as "likely to affect the enjoyment" or cover too wide an area to be answered definitively. Please remember to include the necessary fee for each enquiry (see our Local Land Charges Fees page). The Council does not have an obligation to answer any supplementary enquiries when a person is making a personal search.

Additional parcels

For search purposes a "parcel" is a piece of land/property occupied or owned separately from the land adjoining it. Normally, a separate search should be made for each parcel of land. However, a search can include more than one parcel if it is required for the purposes of a single transaction, and the parcels have a common boundary or are separated only by a road, river or railway. The Council will also accept a garage as an additional parcel where it is located in a nearby garage block on the same development as the dwelling being searched. The same principle applies to parking spaces.