When buying a property, it is vital that you know all the facts before you commit to the purchase by exchanging contracts. That’s where pre-completion searches come in. These are enquiries made by your solicitor / licensed conveyancer to various authorities that hold information about the land the property sits on or any factors that directly (or indirectly) affect it. For advice on Cheltenham Conveyancing, contact /www.montpellier.legal/conveyancing-solicitor/conveyancing-cheltenham
Pre-completion searches are usually carried out near the end of the conveyancing process and are also a requirement of mortgage lenders as they have an interest in the soundness of title to the property and solvency of the borrower.
When do you need to have these carried out?
If you are buying with a mortgage then you will need a bankruptcy search done as part of your mortgage application. You will need an Official Search of Whole or Part without priority (OS1) if purchasing the entire registered title or an OS2 if you are purchasing a new build plot or if you are buying unregistered land then you would have a Land Charges search (K15) conducted in lieu of an OS1/OS2.
It is important to consider whether the risk of not doing these searches is worth it; after all if you later find out that there has been contamination on your land, it’s too close to a coal mine or your home is at high risk of flooding, it could cost you thousands to resolve and may ruin your enjoyment of the property. For that reason we strongly advise that you always follow your conveyancer’s advice on searches so as not to be caught out later on.