People buying and selling property in the Harrogate district have expressed frustration over delays for land searches to be completed.
A buoyant local property market has increased the workload on Harrogate Borough Council.
The Stray Ferret understands searches in Harrogate are taking several weeks longer than in neighbouring authorities Leeds and York.
Local authority searches, which check there are no hidden surprises for buyers, are an essential part of the home-buying process.
HBC’s local land charges team charges £103.95 for a search, which reveals information on issues relating to the property such as previous planning applications, roads, utilities and the environment.
According to HBC’s website, the average search time in August 2020 was just over three weeks. However, the Stray Ferret has spoken to someone selling a house, an estate agent, and a solicitor who all say the process is now taking much longer.
‘Banging your head against a brick wall’
Robert Ash and his wife are currently selling a property in the village of Grantley, near Ripon. Their buyer’s solicitor asked HBC to undertake a search of the property at the end of August and he has now been told the result will be ready on November 8 — 10 weeks later.
Mr Ash suggested it could be taking longer because “everyone is trying to sell a house in Harrogate” at the moment.
He said he’d tried to ask the council why it was taking so much longer than expected but said “it’s like banging your head against a brick wall”. He added:
“It does seem ridiculous because everyone is anxious to get on with these things.”
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Estate agent Jak Cavanagh from Knight Frank in Harrogate said the delays were too long.
Knight Frank has offices across the country and Mr Cavanagh said Harrogate was known nationally for taking a long time to process searches.
He said searches were now taking 10-12 weeks, around twice as long as they were pre-covid.
“It would be great if they were a bit quicker. It’s delaying things a bit too much.
“From a seller’s point of view, it can be frustrating, but Harrogate is known all over the country for this, I’m afraid.”
Leeds and York quicker
The estate agent’s experience was echoed by local property solicitor Mike Sheldon, from the law firm Wilson Bramwell.
Mr Sheldon said searches were taking far longer in Harrogate compared to other local authorities, such as York and Leeds.
He said:
“The council are taking longer, there’s no question about that, but it’s just the volume of conveyancing that’s going on. It’s slowing things down. Each council is different but Leeds and York seem to be a lot quicker.”
In a statement released to the Stray Ferret, HBC said the current processing timescales for searches was approximately 28 working days.
It said July, August and September were the busiest three months for local land charges team in “a number of years”.
The council added that increased pressures related to covid meant it was unable to provide the team with additional resources. It also said two experienced staff from the team had recently retired.
The council added it had made overtime available for staff to clear some of the backlog.
A council spokesperson said:
“We appreciate how stressful buying a house can be and we are doing everything we can to reduce the processing times for local land charge searches.
“There have been a number of issues that have meant we are dealing with an unprecedented level of demand so we are asking people to be mindful of the current timescales and advise them to carry out searches as early as possible in their housing buying process.”
