What searches are done during conveyancing?
A survey tells you about the building. Searches tell you about everything else: what the council has planned, who maintains the drains, whether the ground underneath has been mined or contaminated, and what the legal title actually permits.
You are buying the answers, not the paperwork. A search that comes back clear is not wasted money, it is the reason you can exchange without worrying about that particular risk.
The three that are near enough standard
The local authority search. Two parts. One asks the council a fixed set of questions about the property, covering planning decisions, building regulations consents, roads that may or may not be adopted, tree preservation orders and enforcement notices. The other is the local land charges register, which records financial charges and restrictions attached to the land itself. This is the search most likely to hold up a transaction, because turnaround depends entirely on how quickly that particular council answers. Some return in days and some take many weeks.
The drainage and water search. Confirms whether the property is connected to mains water and public sewers, where the public sewers run, and who is responsible for maintaining what. It matters more than it sounds: a public sewer crossing the garden can constrain where you build an extension.
An environmental search. Checks contaminated land, landfill history, flood risk and ground stability against the property’s location. Lenders generally expect one, and a bad result is not necessarily fatal but does need explaining before you commit. For England you can get a rough feel for flooding beforehand from the government’s long term flood risk service, though it reports on an area rather than a specific property, so it supplements the search rather than replacing it.
The ones that depend on where you are buying
Some searches only apply to particular areas, and your conveyancer orders them on the basis of the postcode rather than because you asked.
Coal mining searches in former coalfields. Tin and clay searches in parts of Cornwall and Devon. Chancel repair checks, which look at whether the land carries an ancient liability to contribute to church repairs. In some areas, searches for brine extraction or limestone workings.
If you are buying leasehold there is a separate strand of enquiries aimed at the freeholder and managing agent rather than the council, covering service charges, ground rent, major works and consents. That pack is set by whoever supplies it and is a common source of delay that nobody on your side controls.
Who actually requires them
If you are buying with a mortgage, your lender does. Searches protect the lender’s security as well as your ownership, and the firm acting for you is usually acting for the lender too, so the lender’s requirements set the minimum.
Cash buyers can in principle skip them. It is rarely a good trade. The money saved is small next to the purchase price, and the risks searches uncover are exactly the ones that are invisible on a viewing and expensive afterwards.
Some sellers supply a search pack up front. Whether your lender will accept searches commissioned by the other side, and how old they can be, varies, so your conveyancer will check rather than assume.
Why they take as long as they do
Most of the wait is not your conveyancer. It is a queue at a council, a water company or a managing agent, and the pace is set at their end.
What you can control is when they are ordered. Searches cost money, so firms usually ask for funds on account before commissioning them, and the sooner you provide that the sooner the clock starts. A week lost at the beginning is a week added at the end. How long conveyancing takes covers where the rest of the time goes.
Searches are not a survey
Worth saying plainly, because the two get conflated. Searches are desk enquiries about the land and its surroundings. Nobody visits the property. A search will not tell you the roof is failing or the boiler is on its last year, and a survey will not tell you the council has approved a bypass through the field behind you.
If you want both kinds of answer, you need both pieces of work. House surveys and valuations explains what each survey level does and does not cover.
Frequently asked questions
Can I reuse searches from a purchase that fell through?
Sometimes, if they are recent enough and the lender accepts them. Search results age, and lenders set their own limits on how old is acceptable. Ask before you pay for a fresh set, because if the answer is yes it saves real money.
Do searches get done on a remortgage?
Usually fewer, and sometimes none. A remortgage has no change of owner, so the risk the lender is managing is narrower. Some lenders accept search indemnity insurance instead, which is quicker and cheaper. Your conveyancer will tell you which route that lender takes.
What happens if a search comes back with something bad?
It depends what. Many results are manageable with an explanation, an indemnity policy or a price adjustment. Some are a reason to walk away. The point of doing them before exchange is that until contracts are exchanged you are free to do either. Afterwards you are not.
Searches and Land Registry fees are disbursements rather than legal fees, so a quote that leaves them out is not the real total. You can compare conveyancing quotes with searches already included in the figure.