Most local councils are still blocking access to personal search firms and are pushing their own official search products instead.
Research by the Council of Property Search Organisations says that despite attempts at reform, the situation is as bad as ever.
CoPSO conducted research across all local authorities and found that only one in five meets the Office of Fair Trading requirement for full, open access to its data. In 80% of councils, CoPSO claims it is impossible to do a full personal search of the public register.
It also claims that 86% of councils discriminate in favour of their own search product in terms of price and turnaround time.
It was back in 2005 that the OFT found that local councils were arbitrarily restricting access to data, and called for this practice to cease.
A year ago, the Government introduced Charging Regulations which it promised would deliver this. But CoPSO chief executive Kate Nicholls said nothing had changed. “Five years ago, the OFT said that home buyers and sellers were not well served by the market. It found that councils were arbitrarily restricting access to data which should be freely available to home-buyers. It called for equal access for all.
“Five years on, and the situation is depressingly the same.”
CoPSO is now calling on whoever forms the next government to make it illegal for councils to restrict access to public records.
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