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.
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.
Sources
Related
- The free checks to run before you offer
- What the seller has to tell you on the TA6 form
- How long does conveyancing take?
- Survey decoder
Last reviewed: 2026-09-20. We check these against the linked official sources and re-date the page when they change.