Home sales held-up by long wait for local authority searches - research

Local authority searches are taking up to 60 days in some parts of the country - holding up the sales process.

Analysis by quick-buy firm Spring found searches are taking 11.5 days on average in England.

However, there are vast discrepancies with searches taking up to 60 days for Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and Canterbury City Council respectively.

The process also takes 40 days for Tamworth Borough Council and Islington London Borough Council and 45 days for Camden Council.

Conversely, for some lucky movers searches are taking as little as under one day for authorities such as Forest Heath District Council, Salisbury District Council, St. Edmundsbury Borough Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council and North Wiltshire District Council.

However, that does not guarantee a fast sale with various other factors at play including local conveyancing capabilities.

The average conveyancing caseload per firm has nearly increased by 79% over the past decade, while there has been a 13% fall in the number of solicitors working in residential conveyancing from September 2021 to October 2023.

Cormac Henderson, cexecutive chairman at Spring, said: “There is a vast discrepancy in local authority search times across the country which can be driven by various factors including property demand, staffing and resource levels in each area.

“While there are some winners getting searches returned in less than 24 hours that does not necessarily mean a faster overall conveyancing process. At the bottom end, those in slower areas are waiting up to 5,900% longer, which can contribute to a greatly protracted and stressful moving saga.

“When put into the mix with waning demand and a shortage of buyers in some areas, slow processes, under resourced departments and chains collapsing, this presents a real headache for movers who just want to get on with it.”