End of the road for personal searches?

Monday 24th May 2010
The Government is facing calls for official searches to be made compulsory in all home-buying transactions.

If it agrees, it could spell the end of the road for the personal search industry, already dealt a huge blow by the suspension and inevitable abolition of HIPs.

Land Data – which makes official search information available in electronic form through the National Land Information Service – said it welcomed the suspension of HIPs.

Chief executive Jan Boothroyd said that HIPs had almost immediately become synonymous with price and the poor quality of property searches.

She said: “Ultimately this exposed consumers to incomplete and out-of-date information, often insufficient for the needs of a buyer. This in turn led to the buyer’s conveyancer ordering searches for the property again and the unsatisfactory situation where the seller and the buyer were both paying for searches.

“Land Data believes consumer interests are best served by official, indemnified authoritative data from local authorities, water authorities, land registry and the coal authority.

“Furthermore, consumers should only pay for this information once and have the right to expect it to be up-to-date, complete and available at the point in the conveyancing transaction that they need it.
    
“With the removal of HIPs there is an opportunity for the Government to look at new initiatives to improve the home buying process and Land Data believes making official searches compulsory will not only protect the home buying public from poor search practices but will bring instant clarity to a confused market.”