About Local Land Charges
Welcome to South Hams District Council's Local Land Charges search service pages. Here we aim to give you some useful information and to provide property Conveyancers with an easily accessible guide to the Local Land Charges search process. We also try to answer some of the questions we are most often asked. We hope this will help to save you time and speed up the search process. If you have any comments or suggestions in how we can improve our service then kindly contact the Local Land Charges Officer.
Local Land Charges were the creation of the 1925 Land Charges Act and were designed to ensure that purchasers of land or property were not caught unawares by obligations and restrictions enforceable against successive owners of the property by the Local Authority under the terms of the various statutes. Examples of such are:-
- Tree Preservation Orders
- Planning Agreements
- Improvement Grants
- Conservation Areas
- Road Adoption Agreements
- Listed Buildings
A number of patching amendments were made over the years and in 1974, upon the re-organisation of Local Government, the County Registers were taken over by the District Councils. This was considered to be some measure of improvement.
In 1973/74 the Law Commission undertook a detailed study of Land Charges and produced a report. New rules were drafted and on the 1 August 1977 the new Rules and the Land Charges Act 1975 were brought into effect. The whole of the 1925 Act was repealed.
The Statutory duty of the Council is to maintain this Local Land Charges Register together with the Index and all the supporting documentation, in accordance with the Land Charges Act and the Land Charges Rules. The Registers are 'Public' and may be inspected by anyone upon payment of the prescribed fee.
