Over Taylor Biggs

The reference to property records is to the Local Land Charges Register.  This is a local register maintained by local authorities that contains details of the restrictions or prohibitions on particular pieces of land either to secure the payment of money or to limit the use to which the land can be put.  The Land Charge is binding on successive owners of the property.

Government had issued a Consultation Paper setting out the Government's proposals for local authority charges and related procedures in relation to property search services, brought about to some extent, by criticism made by the Office of Fair Trading, following complaints made by personal search companies.

The proposals aimed to facilitate a "level playing field" between local authorities and personal search companies, who have argued that local authorities either do not have the power to charge for information (which is termed "unrefined data") or that fees are not transparent or are set artificially high to favour the local authorities' delivery of the service.  Government policy is to provide for open and fair access to local authority held data, as there is now significant competition from personal search companies to provide searches.

There was no evidence of any uniform practice amongst local authorities.  Partly owing to costs pressure, many did not have appropriate arrangements in place to provide unrestricted access to records.  Fees were often not set on a costs-recovery basis, resulting in overcharging and, in some cases, some authorities were losing out by undercharging.

Under the Regulations local authorities must show the calculation for their cost recovery fee and publish information relating to it, including the cost of providing the service and the income derived from it.

Government hopes that by dealing with charging in this way the "level playing field" will be achieved and no searches will be provided by personal search companies that are compiled with incomplete data (for which they presently provide an insurance indemnity).  There is a recognition that such searches are unreliable and often lead to duplication of searches in property transactions.

The level of charge must not exceed the cost to the local authority of granting access to the records.  However, there is no equivalent restriction on charges for answering enquiries about a property but a local authority's discretion must still be exercised, taking into account the actual costs to the local authority of answering.

Commentators query whether the Regulations will achieve their objective of an improvement in the level of services provided by local authorities in giving access to property records and answering enquiries.  The private sector has commented that inefficient local authorities may not be incentivised to improve their service if all their costs can be recovered.  Furthermore, the Regulations make no provision for an independent regulator.