The eleven Devon Councils aim to transform home moving

When someone buys or sells property, one of the elements they have to go through is a land search from the records held by a local council. The speed this is done by is set to change dramatically, which will benefit the public and businesses.

Solicitors and home movers in Devon will benefit from an electronic service for local land searches because of the commitment of all eleven local authorities in Devon, including the two unitary councils of Plymouth and Torbay, by using the electronic National Land Information Service (NLIS), a government-backed initiative to make all official land and property-related information available online.

Around 40,000 searches are processed annually by the local authorities of Devon, by 28 full time and 12 part time staff. The electronic system now means that they are turned around within an average of five working days - well within the national target of ten working days.

Andrew Burke, Partner, Slee Blackwell Solicitors in Exeter said: "I would like to congratulate the local authorities of Devon on the extremely high standard of service across the county, achieved through electronic connection to NLIS. NLIS has speeded up the availability of officially guaranteed information and is revolutionising the property transaction process. It is enabling us, as solicitors, to provide a wide variety of information to our customers, such as planning and environmental information, so that home movers can make more informed decisions early on in the transaction process. NLIS is about empowering people with the right information, at the right time, to make the right decision."

The new, improved service will be launched to local solicitors at a series of afternoon briefings in April throughout Devon: 12th April in Barnstaple; 13th April in Plymouth and 21st April in Exeter. The events will provide local solicitors with the opportunity to see how the electronic search system works and meet representatives from the Devon local authorities and members of the NLIS team. It will also provide a platform to discuss any issues surrounding the processing of searches, including the move to e-conveyancing and the impact of new legislation, such as Home Information Packs (HIPs).

Most people use a local authority's local land charges service when they buy a house or other piece of land. The search, usually carried out by a solicitor, establishes whether there are any restrictions registered that could affect the new owners of the property, such as planning permissions or being a listed structure. The combined commitment of Devon local authorities to NLIS means that solicitors and home movers across Devon can now obtain their official local authority searches quicker and more cost-effectively.

Most local solicitors deal with home movers that cross the local authority borders. With NLIS, they no longer need to contact each local authority separately for search and fee requests. At the press of a button, they can submit their search through NLIS and it seamlessly sends the search to the correct local authority.

By joining to NLIS, solicitors can significantly reduce the time and cost of processing search results and can give their customers, the home movers, the peace of mind of an official, authoritative search. Training is also being made available to Devon-based solicitors, on how to achieve significant business benefits by transacting with local authorities via NLIS.

Claire Fryer, Local Land Charges Officer at West Devon Borough Council and Chair of the Devon Local Land Charges Officers Group said: "Local people want the fastest, most cost-effective search service when they move home. But they also want the most certain option that protects their investment, by getting accurate, official results direct from the local authority. NLIS is the official, national one-stop shop for land and property information, including Local Land Charges Registerable (LLC1) information. The fact that all the local authorities in Devon are embracing NLIS means that local home movers and re-mortgagers can rely on a fast, competitively priced service, which provides accurate, up-to-date information on 'registerable charges' and proposed schemes."

NLIS provides all the land and property searches required in Home Information Packs (HIPs) today, ahead of the planned introduction in January 2007, when searches will be required as part of the sale of a house or piece of land, For home movers in Devon, knowing your solicitor is using NLIS, will give you the certainty that official online searches are being purchased, giving you and your solicitor all the latest authoritative information available.

John Thornton from IDeA who are running NLIS said: "This is joined-up local government in action, maximising the impact of service improvements. The benefits for the authority are clear in terms of process savings and customer satisfaction. Additionally, solicitors can benefit from the interactions between NLIS and their case management system. These can equate to significant savings of both time and resource whilst efficiently managing searches for their clients.

The eleven local authorities working together to modernise their local land charges service are:

Devon County Council
East Devon District Council
Exeter City Council
Mid Devon District Council
North Devon District Council
Plymouth City Council
South Hams District Council
Teignbridge District Council
Torbay Council
Torridge District Council
West Devon Borough Council