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Local Land Charges - Personal Search
Personal Search Requests and Requests for Information Guidelines
Please note that the following procedure will be adopted by Harrogate Borough Council to deal with personal searches, requests to view public registers and requests for assistance and information normally contained within the official CON 29 - Enquiries of District Councils, with effect from 1 April 2006
Aims of the Procedure
- To promote good practice and working relations amongst the Council's staff and personal searchers, by providing Land Charges Registerable data, access to other records open for public inspection free of charge and the provision of other information and assistance on a cost basis, without unnecessary disruption of work.
- To alleviate the increased pressure on the Council's staff who have to accommodate growing numbers of personal searchers in addition to other work including maintaining the Land Charges Register and other records and providing an official search service for the Council.
- To ensure that the Council does not exercise anti-competitive behaviour or discriminate against either itself or its competitors. Whilst any person is entitled to inspect free of charge any records open for public inspection held by the Council, this does not, however, include Officer assistance or interpretation of such records. If assistance is required, or information is requested which is not within records open to public inspection, a charge will be made on a cost basis, based on an hourly rate for Officers, relative to the cost of the Local Land Charges service. (See Fees and Charges 2006/07)
Personal Searches of the Local Land Charges
Register
The Council is required to allow any person to obtain
information from the Land Charges Register upon payment of a
prescribed fee See Fees
and Charges 2006/07. In addition to
searching the Local Land Charges Register, many personal searchers
may wish to inspect other records open for public inspection,
although this does not form part of a personal search as defined by
the Land Charges Act 1975.
At Harrogate Borough Council the Register of Local Land Charges is stored partially on computer and partially in manual files. The information required in order to complete a personal search is also provided from two Office sources located in different buildings. It is for this reason that we have adopted the following procedure for conducting a personal search of the Register, which entails our staff collating all the information in advance and providing notification of when that information is available to be viewed:
- The name, address and telephone number of the person or company carrying out the personal search and details of the address/area of land against which the search is to be made should be faxed to the Land Charges' Office on 01423 556040. We suggest that the personal search request form is used for this purpose. It is essential that a good quality, up-to-date plan clearly showing the boundaries of the property in context with the surrounding area, is provided in all cases.
- We aim to commence processing all requests received before 12 noon on the day of receipt (subject to levels of demand and staff availability). Requests received later in the day are likely to commence processing on the next working day.
- As the collation process involves two offices at separate locations identifying, providing, verifying and printing the relevant data from various sources, the request is usually completed by 4pm on the following working day, at which point you will be notified.
- Once notified, your search request information will be available to view only Monday-Friday between 9am and 1 pm in the Reception Area of the Council Offices at Crescent Gardens, where you can also make the required payment of £11 per request. (See location map).
- Please be advised that the Planning Register and other Public Registers, the viewing of which do not form part of a personal search, are available for inspection by appointment with the Planning Enquiries Section or Highways Section of the Department of Development Services, Knapping Mount, West Grove Road, Harrogate. Tel: 01423 556666, or the Environmental Protection Team, Department of Community Services, Springfield House Harrogate. Tel: (01423) 556633 (See location map).
Please note that neither Local Land Charges, Planning, Highways, Environmental Health staff will be available to assist with any inspections or interpretations of the Registers, therefore basic knowledge of the personal search system and registers is essential.
What else can you inspect?
Listed below are some of the Council's statutory registers and records, which are open for public inspection. Any or all of these may be inspected during reasonable office hours. Please note, however, that these do not form part of the personal search and it will be necessary for an appointment to be made by telephoning:
- Planning Enquiries on (01423) 556666
- Highways Enquiries on (01423) 556565 (Agency Area only Harrogate and Knaresborough)
- Environmental Health Enquiries on (01423) 556633
It will assist the Council's staff if, when telephoning,
details of the property address/location and type of information
which is required is stated so that the necessary records/registers
will be available at the stated appointment time, otherwise, there
will be a delay until a member of staff becomes available to
produce the requested records.
Appointments will normally be available on the following
working day.
The Council's statutory registers and records which are
available for inspection free of charge (without officer
interpretation) are as follows:
Planning
Register of Planning applications/decisionsStop and Enforcement Notice RegisterDistrict Wide Local PlanTree Preservation OrdersRegister of Hazardous SubstancesHighways
Register of Maintainable HighwaysRights of Way Definitive MapsEnvironmental Health
Register of Food PremisesRegister of Licensed PremisesRegister of Waste Management Licences issued by the Environment AgencyRegister of Radioactive SubstancesRegister of Cooling Towers & Evaporative CondensersRegister of Industrial Processes Permitted by the Environment Agency under Part A1 of the Pollution Prevention Control Act 1999Register of Industrial Processes Permitted under Parts B & A2 of The Pollution Prevention Control Act 1999Register of Contaminated Land
Information contained within the Council's records
which is not comprised within public registers but is normally
required to provide answers to personal searchers own version of
the Official CON29 Enquiries of District Councils will be provided
on written request to the Authority's Local Land Charges Section,
Harrogate Borough Council, Crescent Gardens, Harrogate, HG1 2SG
together with the appropriate fee.
There are some requests for information relating to
Environmental Protection not normally contained within CON29 where
the applicant may not wish to view the public registers and records
themselves or where the information is not in the public domain,
which the Authority proposes to deal with under the Environmental
Information Regulations and these inquiries should be made in
writing to the Environmental Protection Team, Department of
Community Services, Springfield House, Kings Road, Harrogate, HG1
5NX with the appropriate fee. See Fees and Charges
2006/07
Please note that requests for any copy documents
other than copy planning permission or planning decision notices
should be addressed in writing to the Authority's Local Land
Charges Section, Crescent Gardens, Harrogate, HG1 2SG with the
appropriate fee. See Fees and Charges
2006/07
Requests for copies of any planning permissions or
planning decision notices or building regulation approvals should
be made in writing to the Council's Planning Section, Department of
Development Services, Knapping Mount, West Grove Road, Harrogate,
HG1 2AE with the appropriate fee. See Fees and Charges
2006/07
Please ensure that where a personal search or other
information is obtained on behalf of a third party (i.e solicitor,
licensed conveyancer etc):
- The results should be presented to the third party in a way, which makes it clear that the search information has been compiled by the searcher and not by the Council. This is necessary to ensure that any queries about the reported results are properly directed to the searcher and not to the Council.
- Similarly, where the searcher obtains an official LLC1 search from the Council and supplies this to a third party client together with the results of a personal search based on enquiries on the CON 29 form, it should be indicated to the client that only the LLC1 form comprises an official search carried out by the Council
- The official LLC1 search form is prescribed by statute, and must not be altered in any way. Only registering authorities (local authorities) are authorised to sign form LLC1.
- Not all the information required to answer enquiries on the CON 29 form is available from records open for public inspection held by the Council. Where an answer given to a CON 29 question is based on information obtained from a source other than a record made available to the searcher by the Council, this should be indicated in the answer and the source identified.
Please note that the Council do not deal with enquiries relating to water services, highways outside of the urban areas of Harrogate and Knaresborough and common land, and these should be addressed to the appropriate organisation as detailed below:
| Water - |
Yorkshire Water (Safe Move) PO Box 99 Bradford BD3 7YB |
| Highways/Commons - |
North Yorkshire County Council County Hall Northallerton DL7 8AH |
If you have any queries, suggestions or comments with regard to the procedure outlined above, please forward these to alison.best@harrogate.gov.uk
Fees and Charges 2006/07
| Local Land Charges | £ |
| Personal search in the whole or any part of the register (statutory fee this will be payable on collection but the authority reserve the right to demand payment in advance in appropriate circumstances) | 11.00 |
| Inspection of documents filed under Rule 10 of the Local Land Charges Rules (LLC Rules) in respect of each parcel of land Light Obstruction Notices only (statutory fee) | 2.50 |
| Office copy of an entry in the register (not including a copy or extract of any plan or document filed in pursuance to the LLC Rules (statutory fee) | 1.50 |
| Copy of any plan or other document excluding planning permission, decision notices, building regulation approvals etc whether or not filed pursuant to the LLC Rules (subject to additional charge if large document and/or plan) |
25.00* per copy |
| Planning | £ |
| Copy planning permission decision notices | 3.00 *per copy |
|
Requests for written information to be provided by the
Council's staff from the:
Register of Planning Applications/decisions
Register of Enforcement Notices including Stop Notices
or other public registers and records held by planning
(Nb. where personal attendance at the Council's Offices does
not take place all requests must be in writing with the appropriate
fee)
|
25.00 per enquiry
(Subject to additional charge if more than 30 minutes
Officer time is required) |
| Requests for information relating to building regulations (questions 1.1 (e) and (f) on the Official CON29). All requests must be in writing with the appropriate fee. Our records are computerised from July 2002. For enquiries requiring information prior to July 2002 please contact Planning Enquiries. | 12.50 per enquiry (from July 2002) |
| Highways | £ |
|
Requests for written information to be provided by the
Council's staff from the Register of Maintainable Highways (Nb.
where personal attendance at the Council's offices does not take
place all requests must be in writing with the appropriate fee and
a plan)
|
37.50 per enquiry with plan (subject to an additional charge if more than 45 minutes Officer time is required) |
| Requests for information relating to unadopted roads (questions 2 (b-d) on Official CON29) | 12.50 per enquiry |
| Requests for information relating to land to be acquired for road works (question 3.2 on Official CON29) | 12.50 per enquiry |
| Requests for information relating to nearby road schemes (question 3.4 (a-f) on Official CON 29) | 12.50 per enquiry |
| Requests for information relating to traffic schemes (question 3.6 (a-l) on Official CON 29) | 12.50 per enquiry |
| Requests for information relating to outstanding notices (including highways) (question 3.7 on the Official CON29) | 12.50 per enquiry |
Where requests are made for 4,5 & 6 above a single fee of £25.00 will apply
| Environmental Health | £ |
| Requests for written information to be provided by the
Council's staff from the:
Register of Hazardous Substances
Register of Contaminated Land
Or other public registers and records relating to the
environment (will be dealt with under the Environmental Information
Regulations where personal attendance at the Council's Offices does
not take place). Please see EIR charges
below
|
|
| Requests for information relating to houses in multiple occupation (question 10 Optional enquiries on the Official CON29) all requests must be in writing with the appropriate fee and follow the wording of the Official CON29. |
20.00
per enquiry |
| Requests for information relating to food safety notices (question 20 Optional enquiries on the Official CON29) all requests must be in writing with the appropriate fee and follow the wording of the Official CON29. |
20.00
per enquiry |
| Requests for information on noise abatement (question 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3 Optional Enquiries on the Official CON29) all requests must be in writing with the appropriate fee and follow the wording of the Official CON29. |
20.00
per enquiry |
| Requests for information on environmental and pollution notices (question 19 on the Optional Enquiries on the Official CON29) all requests must be in writing with the appropriate fee and follow the wording on the CON29 |
20.00
per enquiry |
| EIR Charges | £ |
| Requests for information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 will be charged as follows: | |
| Simple or basic enquiries (i.e one question or several simple questions) | 40.00 per site |
| Complex enquiries | 60.00 per site |
The Council will endeavour to supply all information necessary
to answer all enquiries on the Official CON29 upon payment of a fee
in those cases where such information is not contained within
public registers. It may also endeavour to
provide officer assistance and interpretation on queries relating
to those matters on public registers upon payment of the
appropriate fee in cases where Officers are available.
Please note, however, that generally neither Local Land
Charges, Planning, Highways, Environmental Health or other Officers
will be available to assist with any inspections or interpretations
of the Registers, therefore basic knowledge of the personal search
system and registers is essential.
If you require answers to any enquiries contained within the
Official CON29 and not listed above, please contact the Local Land
Charges Section who will be able to quote the necessary fee. If
information on a particular area is requested on a regular basis,
the fee will be added to this list of fees and charges.
* Requests for copy
documents (for example Planning Agreements/Decision Notices etc)
will be charged at the amount stated in this list of fees and
charges and the Authority will endeavour to provide them within 7
days. Requests for copies of such documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information
Regulations 2004 will be provided at 10p per sheet (A4) size and
the Authority will endeavour to provide such copies within the
timescales provided by such legislation