Conveyancing searches are a specific, limited set of enquiries to public bodies about the land — not an inspection of the building. They will tell you about planning, drainage and the road outside; they will tell you nothing about the roof.
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What a conveyancer's searches actually cover — and what they do not
Conveyancing searches are a specific, limited set of enquiries to public bodies about the land — not an inspection of the building.
- 1 min read
- Updated 21 September 2026
Part 1 of 3
The usual searches, and their blind spots
| Search | What it covers | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Local authority | Planning history, building regulation entries, roads, nearby proposals affecting the property | The condition of anything, or applications on land the search does not touch |
| Drainage and water | Whether the property connects to mains water and public sewer; the position of public sewers | Whether the pipes work |
| Environmental | Contaminated land, landfill, flooding, ground stability data | A guarantee; it is a desktop screen of datasets |
| Mining (where relevant) | Recorded workings and shafts in coalfield or mineral areas | Areas outside the recorded data |
| Chancel repair / specific others | Liability screens where locally relevant | Anything the specific search was not ordered for |
Searches are about the land and the public record. The building's condition is a survey, and the two are not substitutes — a clean search pack on a house with a failing roof is entirely normal.
Some results come back as "further enquiry recommended" rather than yes or no. That is a prompt, not a formality; the cost of following it up is always less than the cost of not.
Part 2 of 3