official search
A search, in response to an applicant’s requisition, into the Local Land Charges Register, the Land Charges Department, or the Land Registry (as appropriate) in order to disclose any registered matter relevant to the requisition. A certificate is issued by the registrar giving details of encumbrances that the search has revealed. In the case of the land charges register, a purchaser is not bound by any encumbrance that a proper search fails to reveal, the official search certificate being conclusive according to its tenor. If an entry is made in the land charges register after the date of the certificate and before completion of the purchase (other than in pursuance of a priority notice entered on the register on or before the date of the certificate), it will not affect the purchaser if the purchase is completed within 15 working days after the issue of the certificate.

In the case of registered land, a purchaser seeking to become the registered proprietor is only bound by what is on the register and by overriding interests. When a purchaser has applied for an official search of the register, his subsequent application to register the document effecting the purchase of the property concerned takes precedence over any entry made by a third party in the register during the priority period (30 days from the time the application for the search was delivered). Should an official search fail to reveal a registered interest, the newly registered owner is bound by that interest, but may be entitled to a statutory indemnity. A local land charge search certificate is valid only at the time it is issued and a purchaser is bound by any local charge registered subsequently. Since December 1990 the Land Registry has been open to public inspection: it is therefore possible to discover, on payment of a fee, whether any specific property has been or is about to be registered. The Land Registry also operates an online search facility. The register of local land charges and the Land Charges Department are also open to public inspection.

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