Which searches does this address actually need?

What we can check from public data

What no public dataset can tell you

These are listed because leaving them out would read as “nothing else applies”. Each is a real search your conveyancer may order, and none of them can be resolved from a coordinate:

• Chancel repair liability — Liability derives from historic parish records, not a mapped dataset. There is no public layer to query, which is why insurers sell a cheap indemnity policy instead of a search.
• Cheshire brine subsidence search — The Cheshire Brine Subsidence Compensation District is defined by a schedule of parishes rather than a published boundary we can query per point. If the property is in or near Cheshire, ask specifically about it.
• Non-coal mining searches (tin, china clay, limestone, salt, gypsum) — Cornwall and Devon tin and china clay, Cheshire salt, and limestone or gypsum workings elsewhere are covered by commercial regional searches. None publishes an open national boundary, so location alone cannot rule them in or out.
• HS2 and rail safeguarding — Safeguarding directions are registered on planning.data.gov.uk but not published as national point-queryable data, so we cannot confirm or exclude them from a coordinate.
• Common land and village green registration — Registers are held by commons registration authorities. The national dataset is registered but not published, so a point query returns nothing either way.
• Contaminated land register entries — Part 2A registers are maintained by each council and are not published as a national dataset. We screen nearby historic landfill instead, which is a proxy, not the register.

Which property searches are compulsory?

None are compulsory by law if you are a cash buyer, but a lender will require a local authority search (LLC1 and CON29) and a drainage and water search (CON29DW) on effectively every mortgaged purchase. Everything beyond those two is ordered on the basis of location, lender requirements, or your conveyancer's own judgement — which is what this tool helps you interrogate.

Can I refuse a search my conveyancer has quoted for?

You can ask why it is on the list, and a good conveyancer will tell you. But be careful: they carry the professional liability for advising you, and a lender can refuse to release funds without a specific search. This tool is designed to make that conversation better informed, not to talk you out of a search. If a search comes back "indicated" here, that is a reason to keep it, not to query it.

Does a "not indicated" result mean I can skip that search?

No. It means nothing in the public data we can query points to that search being needed at this address. Several things drive a search regardless of geography: your lender's panel requirements, your conveyancer's standard pack, and risks the open data does not map. We say what we checked on every line so you can see exactly how much weight the answer carries.

Is this a substitute for the searches themselves?

No, and it is not intended to be. A regulated search is a report from the authority or dataset holder, often with insurance attached, that your conveyancer and lender will accept. This is a free screen of public data that tells you which of those reports your address is likely to need — it is triage, not the search, and never evidence for a transaction.