Every conveyancer knows Local Authority Searches are essential, but they aren’t all created equal.
Variations in council turnaround times, report formats, and pricing can introduce unwelcome friction into your workflow. What if you could rely on a consistent, clear, fixed-price report backed by substantial PI cover, regardless of the property’s location? It’s time to look closely at the advantages Regulated Local Authority Searches offer and how they directly address these common challenges.
Meeting the needs for consistency, clarity and reliability is the core purpose of OneSearch Prime, our flagship Regulated Local Authority Search. As the product underpinning our longstanding success, OneSearch Prime is specifically designed to overcome the inconsistencies you face.
It provides comprehensive insights presented in a clear, uniform format at a fixed price no matter the Local Authority, bringing predictability to your disbursements. Furthermore, it’s backed by £10 Million PI cover for your peace of mind and is accepted by the vast majority of UK lenders.
Myth-Busting: The True Reliability of Regulated Searches
Let’s address a persistent myth head-on: the idea that Regulated (Personal) local searches are somehow less reliable or comprehensive than their official council counterparts is an outdated view, which fails to recognise the rigorous standards of modern, data-centric providers.
High-quality regulated searches, like OneSearch Prime, access and interpret the same core Local Authority data sources. The key difference lies in the meticulous quality control processes, enhanced data presentation for clarity, and the backing of significant professional indemnity insurance – like our £10m PI cover. Our confidence in the dependability of OneSearch Prime is built on over 30 years of specialist data handling experience, ensuring you receive accurate reports that meet lender requirements.
7 Reasons Why
Here are seven reasons to choose OneSearch Prime Regulated Local Authority Searches:
Budget Certainty & Transparency: Enjoy a fixed price for OneSearch Prime reports nationwide. This simplifies your client quotes and eliminates cost surprises, regardless of the local authority involved.
Unmatched Peace of Mind: Work confidently knowing every OneSearch Prime report is backed by a robust £10 million Professional Indemnity insurance policy.
Faster Report Analysis: Save valuable time with our clear, consistent, easy-to-read layout, standardised across all local authorities and featuring a helpful upfront summary page.
Efficient & Accurate Turnarounds: We strive for prompt report delivery to keep your transactions moving forward. Our commitment to accuracy means that while speed is important, we always perform essential checks when needed, ensuring you receive dependable and trustworthy results.
Deep Data Expertise: Leverage over 30+ years of specialist experience in UK property data collection and interpretation for accurate, comprehensive search results you can trust.
Streamlined Ordering Process: Improve your workflow efficiency by ordering OneSearch Prime and other essential searches through a single, user-friendly, fully supported online platform.
Direct Access to Support: Get quick answers when you need them. Our highly trained, UK-based customer service team is available directly (8:30AM to 5:00 PM) without frustrating automated systems or long hold times.
Stop navigating the friction of variable search costs, inconsistent reports, and reliability concerns that can slow down your conveyancing process. OneSearch Prime provides a clear path forward: a regulated Local Authority Search meticulously designed for today’s demands. It delivers nationwide fixed pricing for budget certainty, dependable accuracy built on 30+ years of data expertise, user-friendly reports for faster analysis, robust £10m PI insurance for peace of mind, and dedicated UK-based support when you need it. It’s the smarter choice for efficient, confident conveyancing.
Take the next step towards smarter searches.Register with OneSearch to start ordering today.
Your indispensable partner in ensuring smooth and successful property transactions
OneSearch Prime
As an essential component of every property deal, OneSearch Prime provides comprehensive insights into a property’s potential issues, allowing you to make informed decisions and avoid costly delays. Whether you’re handling residential or commercial transactions, OneSearch Prime is your go-to resource for accurate and reliable information.
For product cards, sample reports, or to include OneSearch Prime in your next order, click below.
This report, from our parent company Landmark, features the latest data on residential property transactions, including listings, SSTC/SSTM figures, search orders and completions.
Our data for Q1 ‘25 reveals signs of a resilient market and a stable transaction pipeline emerging following the spike in completions ahead of the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) reversal deadline in England and Wales.
Completions rose by 30% over the quarter, with a 71% year-on-year surge in March alone as buyers rushed to complete. Beyond this much-anticipated bubble of activity, underlying indicators point to a more resilient property market heading into Q2.
The Scottish property market continued to hold firm, avoiding any notable market distortion following changes to Land & Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT – the Scottish equivalent of SDLT).
Other key findings from Q1 ‘25 include:
Listing volumes in England and Wales were comparable to Q1 ‘24, up by just 1%. In Scotland, listing volumes were up 11% for the quarter compared to Q1 ‘24.
In England and Wales, SSTC volumes were down 9% compared to Q1 ‘24. Conversely, SSTM volumes in Scotland were up 9% vs Q1 ‘24.
Completions were up 30% in England and Wales (+71% in March alone). In Scotland, completions were up 16% compared to Q1 ‘24.
Download your copy of the Cross Market Activity edition for England, Wales and Scotland, which includes the latest residential property market data and insights for Q1 2025.
Building on the success of their new residential search reports launched last November, our parent companyLandmark are delighted to unveil their new and improved commercial search reports.
The reports are designed to help commercial real estate professionals reduce the time spent interpreting data and access the information they need more easily.
Environmental Insights Remastered
Landmark’s remastered commercial reports feature unmatched data and clearly defined assessments that empowers commercial property lawyers to navigate the detail seamlessly. With enhanced clarity, they’ll provide all the relevant information to power confident decision-making.
Simple, straightforward, but never standard – led by commercial property lawyers
Landmark engaged with a large number of commercial property lawyers to shape the design and product brief. The overwhelming response was a call for reports that are more precise, easy to understand and easily direct you to the detail when required. Based on this valuable feedback, Landmark have refined the new commercial reports to be simple, straightforward, but with the most comprehensive information.
Comprehensive due diligence, made easy
New and upgraded risk modules: Landmark have enhanced their reports to ensure they provide the most comprehensive reports in the market but also the simplest way to convey environmental risk.
Optimised for today’s workflow: Visually enhanced front pages provide greater transparency for commercial property lawyers, saving valuable time.
Executive summaries: New executive summary pages for both conveyancers and clients to quickly and easily understand which risks are relevant for that location and what to do next.
We are delighted with the response to OneSearch AML since we unveiled the product last summer; we hope you’ve had the opportunity to explore yourselves into the solutions it can provide your firm when it comes to managing risk and protecting your firm.
We understand the world of Anti Money Laundering can seem overwhelming at times: new regulations, confusing jargon and acronyms… and that’s not forgetting keeping on top of ever-evolving fraud strategies. On top of all that, you may often find yourself explaining this to your clients as well.
To help you conquer compliance, and master your firms AML checks in 2025, we’re offering a downloadable guide packed with practical advice and best practices for conveyancers.
In our guide, you’ll learn about:
Understanding your KYC/AML Obligations in 2025
A comparison of Manual vs Digital AML Checks
A detailed explanation about the Safe Harbour Standard
A guide to the most common AML phrases and what they actually mean
And also:
A full breakdown on the features and benefits of OneSearch AML, the most comprehensive anti-money laundering solution on the market.
Fill in the form below to download your complimentary 2025 AML guide:
In 2024, we witnessed steady but consistently lower transaction volumes. That begs the question: Why don’t lower volumes mean faster transactions?
Spoiler alert: aside from some marginal variances, property transaction timescales did not vastly alter in 2024, despite reduced transaction volumes. The question is: why?
Our parent company Landmark Information Group’s latest Property Transactions Report – entitled Why don’t lower volumes mean faster transactions? – seeks to answer that question (and more), delving into 17 years’ worth of data, with cross-market commentary from our experts.
Major talking points covered in the report include:
What are the persistent bottlenecks in the home-buying process?
Where have timelines improved?
How do property transaction timescales compare to consumer expectations?
In this report, we analyse the time taken between key transaction milestones and how they have changed over time, including:
Instruction to completion timescales for sales and purchases
Contract issued to buyer enquiries received timescales for sales
Instruction to mortgage offer received timescales for purchases
“Safe Harbour.” We hear this term thrown around in conveyancing teams a lot, but what does it really mean? And is it something you have to do?
Over the years, property fraud has become quite the headache for conveyancers. Fraudsters have been selling properties they don’t own, running off with the cash, and leaving buyers high and dry. The Solicitors Regulation Authority even flagged vendor fraud as an emerging risk in its latest AML Sectoral Risk Assessment.
Naturally, after case law like Dreamvar, lawyers are pretty nervous about getting it wrong. It’s the case that changed the liabilities and responsibilities of lawyers and conveyancers when dealing with residential property transactions. For those who aren’t familiar with the specifics of the case of Dreamvar, here’s what happened…
A fraudster managed to sell a London property worth around £1 million by impersonating the real seller. After the sale, the fraudster (and the money) disappeared into thin air. Fortunately, the Land Registry caught the fraud when the transfer documents came through, so the title never changed hands.
But poor Dreamvar was left with no property and no cash, so they took legal action against their solicitors, alleging negligence and breach of trust. They also sued the fraudster’s solicitor for failing to spot the fraud. Initially, only Dreamvar’s solicitor was found liable, which seemed harsh to many, as the fraudster’s solicitor hadn’t done enough to verify their client’s identity under Money Laundering Regulations (MLR).
The case eventually made its way to the Court of Appeal. There, the judge determined that the solicitors representing the fraudulent property seller should also shoulder some responsibility alongside those representing the deceived buyer for any incurred losses.
Following this, the Law Society updated its Conveyancing Protocol. Now, if you’re acting for the seller (especially if you’re a Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) firm), you need to:
request details of the bank account for the sale proceeds and
obtain evidence that the account belongs to the seller, showing that they have had and been using the account for at least 12 months and
confirm proceeds will only go to that account
This is a great way to ensure the purchase funds are going to the correct person! But let’s face it, fraudsters are still out there trying their luck. Take the case of a Vicar in 2021, who came home to find his house gutted and the locks changed. Someone had stolen his identity and sold his home – and this time, the Land Registry approved the title transfer. It took him two years of legal battles to get his house back!
Safe Harbour protects conveyancers who might unknowingly get caught up in a fraudulent transfer, as the Land Registry won’t hold them liable. The aim is that, by applying the Safe Harbour standard properly, you’ll spot a fraudulent seller right from the start.
This is an excerpt of a guest article written by Kayleigh Smale, of Smale Compliance. To continue reading on the Safe Harbour Standard and its potential implications for your business, you can download our detailed guide: Mastering AML compliance in 2025, which is additionally packed with in-depth analysis and actionable information designed to help you navigate the world of Anti-Money Laundering effectively.
