• Local Authority Search - Compulsory?

    By gareth359 on 21st Jul 2016

    I have previously asked if an LA Search is compulsory to which you replied that it is not, although strongly advised.
    I now read in your Purchase Conveyancing Guide that an OS1 (valid for 6 weeks) must be valid when the application for registration is submitted to the Land Registry. Does this not make an OS1 mandatory or will the Land Registry accept an application for registration without an OS1?

  • 1 Answers

    By Guest on 21/07/2016

    The OS1 is something completely different to the Local Authority search. It is not compulsory - the land registry will accept your AP1 whether or not you have done the search - the point of it is that once done, noone can register anything against the seller's title other than you until the search expires. To give you an example, you could complete the purchase and pay the money to the seller who could then sell the property at the same time to someone else. If the other buyer got his application in to Land Registry first (or did the search) then he would not be bound by your interest. The seller would of course have committed fraud and you could prosecute and possibly get your money back (assuming he doesn't do a runner to South America!) but unless you could prove the other buyer was a party to the fraud you wouldn't get the property.

    Another less extreme but no less problematic scenario would be where the seller had bad debts and one of his creditors got a charging order from the court which was registered against the property. If you have not protected yourself with an OS1 you could end up having to pay the debt off in order to register yourself as the owner of the property.

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