Home buyers charged £300 for search that takes minutes

HOUSE buyers are being charged upwards of £300 for land searches that take councils just minutes to carry out, an analysis has found.

The research also found that one in seven councils is failing to meet a Government target for local authorities to complete the searches within 10 days.

The report from Move iq, the property buying guide, comes six months after the Government vowed to streamline the house-buying process.

Seventy-nine per cent of local councils were found to charge £100 or more to complete a land search, which requires a council employee to go through a computer database.

The report found that the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham charged the most at £333.50, while Wakefield Council charged the least at £44. The second most expensive council was Brent, which charges £320, the report found.

In April, Sajid Javid, who was then the housing minister, announced a 10day limit for councils to complete searches as part of measures to improve standards for home buyers. Theresa May had previously said it was her “personal mission”, as Prime Minister, to fix the “broken” housing market.

The research found that just 15 per cent of councils were meeting Mr Javid’s target, with Stratford-on-avon district council taking the longest at 95 days to complete a search.

Phil Spencer, the television property expert, said there was no excuse for the long waits and high costs.

“Whatever the individual councils’ reasons for the delays – lack of resources or lack of staff – it’s clearly unacceptable to force buyers to wait up to three months for what should be a routine process,” he added.

“To rub salt in the wound, the arbitrary fees charged by different councils have created a postcode lottery where a search in one area can cost seven times more than it would in another.”

Responding to the research, a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman labelled the delays “unacceptable” and said it would review the data with a view to taking “appropriate action” against councils breaching the 10-day target.

A spokesman for Hammersmith and Fulham council claimed the figure was stated inaccurately on its website, but was unable to give the correct amount.

Brent Council did not respond to a request for comment.