Our parent company Landmark Information Group is among some of the UK’s leading organisations from across the property sector who have united to streamline the property transaction process and bring certainty back to the sector. Our bold ambition is to transform how we buy and sell property for good.   

The Charter is a cross-industry commitment to transform the UK property market by reducing the time from sale agreed to exchange to just 28 days.

For the first time, mortgage lenders, brokers, estate agents, conveyancers and property data providers have come together to define eight key commitments aimed at streamlining the property transaction process and delivering better outcomes for all.   

Landmark Information Group is committed to bringing certainty, transparency and speed to the home buying process. 

Read more: https://hubs.la/Q03J4xkL0

The paperwork is done. The deadlines are tight. Everything is on track for a smooth completion. But then, a piece of the search data doesn’t quite fit.

Maybe it’s a conflicting record, a missing detail, or a late-stage query from a third party. This moment of doubt is familiar to every conveyancer; the ripple of uncertainty that can quickly become a full-blown wave of delay, client frustration, and unexpected risk.

This blog uncovers four of the real risks that lurk in the details of property transactions, and how to spot them before they stall your next case.

•  The Architectural Blunder

Imagine a client purchasing a multimillion-pound property in an affluent London borough, with grand plans to repurpose the interior into their dream home. They assume planning permission will be a formality, only to discover a critical restriction post-purchase. Feeling powerless and bitter, the homeowner makes a defiant gesture by painting the façade in a dramatic colour scheme. This move immediately ran afoul of even more local regulations, as the property was in a conservation area, meaning strict rules governed its exterior appearance. The homeowner was legally compelled to repaint the house to its original visage, a costly obligation for which they were entirely unprepared.

The OneSearch Solution: This example highlights a critical pitfall: a lack of awareness about local planning and conservation rules. Without a comprehensive search, a buyer can inherit costly obligations. Our detailed reports bring these vital details to light before purchase, ensuring buyers understand a property’s true limitations and avoid unexpected financial burdens and disappointment.

•  The Unforeseen Public Right of Way

In a move to make everyone envious, a wealthy couple purchased a vast country estate with roaming fields for garden space, only to discover an unexpected feature: legally protected public rights of way crisscrossing their land. Despite their desire for privacy and claims that these paths infringed on their human rights, the ancient rights of public access in England and Wales legally superseded their personal desires. People continued to walk through parts of their private estate, turning a dream of seclusion into a persistent privacy issue.

The OneSearch Solution: This story illustrates a common issue for many property buyers. Countryside rights of way are heavily protected and can significantly impact the enjoyment and use of a property. Without proper searches, a buyer might unknowingly acquire land with legally protected footpaths, leading to unexpected conflicts. Our property searches uncover these crucial details, ensuring buyers are fully aware of all access rights tied to their new home and the acres of land that it comes with.

•  The Chancel Repair Liability

For many, buying a home near a beautiful old church seems idyllic. However, an archaic and often surprising law known as Chancel Repair Liability can turn this dream into a financial nightmare. Dating back centuries, this obscure law can burden property owners with the financial responsibility for repairing the chancel (the area around the altar) of a local church. This liability is tied to the land’s history, not the current owner’s religious beliefs. There are real cases where unsuspecting homeowners have faced demands for hundreds of thousands of pounds for church roof repairs; a devastating blow that can come completely out of the blue, years after purchasing a property.

The OneSearch Solution: This unfortunate example underscores the vital importance of understanding all potential liabilities tied to a property. Our selection of indemnity add-ons includes chancel insurance, safeguarding buyers from this potential and incredibly costly hidden obligation, ensuring their peace of mind long after moving in.

•  The Hidden Flood Risk

A retiring couple, envisioning a peaceful new life in a downsized property, moved into a house only to discover a shocking secret: an abutting pond regularly overflowed into the back garden. The previous owners had failed to disclose this critical issue, leaving the new homeowners with a persistent and damaging problem they were entirely unprepared for. This unfortunate example underscores the vital importance of understanding environmental risks associated with a property.

The OneSearch Solution: Flooding is just one of many potential environmental hazards that can impact a home’s value, insurability, and liveability. Without thorough environmental searches, buyers might unknowingly purchase properties in high-risk areas. Our comprehensive environmental reports access vast datasets and expert analysis to inform buyers of potential risks, enabling them to make truly informed decisions and avoid such distressing surprises.

 Every Piece in Place. Every Transaction Secure.

These four illustrations demonstrate a crucial truth for conveyancers and buyers: our homes are seldom straightforward. Furthermore, the data attached with them needs to be as accurate and as authentic as it can possibly be. In a market filled with nuanced risks and unexpected pitfalls, only a meticulous, comprehensive approach to data can truly safeguard your clients and your firm from hidden liabilities.

At OneSearch, this meticulous approach is not a feature; it’s the anchor of what we do. Our uncompromising quality and expert problem-solvers are dedicated to ensuring your conveyancing transactions are built on a bedrock of certainty. We are specialists in finding the hidden risks, correcting the inconsistencies, and giving you the peace of mind to advise your clients with unwavering confidence.

Don’t let your next transaction be stalled by the unexpected.

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For more examples of the real risks that lurk in the details of property transactions, as well as details on how to spot them, grab our latest guide: ‘Solving the data puzzle’, available now.

The year is 1995. Barely anyone knows what an email is, and smartphones are a distant dream. A young Liz Jarvis begins her career in property, facing challenges that seem almost Dickensian by today’s standards.

Her daily routine often involved grappling with a map tank, a gargantuan metal beast filled with oversized paper maps held together with tape and a prayer, where crucial property details were manually drawn, scribbled out, and drawn again. It was a world of queues for the library photocopiers and urgent pager calls, with the hope the local phone box still worked.

This era marked the early steps of OneSearch, and as Liz, now Managing Director, looks back on her three-decade journey with the company, it reveals far more than just a personal ascent. It’s a compelling narrative of how OneSearch grew from those analogue roots to become a leader in digital data, a testament to its enduring adaptability, formidable resilience, and an uncompromising dedication to delivering the complete, accurate picture to conveyancing professionals.

OneSearch, then known as SPH, began its life in 1992, rooted in a small-town planning practice in West Dunbartonshire. Thirty years ago, the world of property data was a landscape unrecognisable to today’s digital natives. There was no email, no instant downloads, no bespoke systems. Information was solely a physical commodity, painstakingly collected and manually processed.

“How we used to have to stand in a public library and commandeer the photocopier all day as we copied agendas,” Liz recalls, a chuckle in her voice. Her colleague, Heather Nash, who started around the same time, paints an even more vivid picture: “I remember having to go and photocopy Tree Preservation Orders and planning applications and then navigate my way back on the train… with my bag full of photocopies all the way back to the office again.” These bags, heavy with paper, were just the start. Once back at the office, everything had to be manually input.

Even basic communication was an odyssey. If a “roadie” – OneSearch’s intrepid data collectors – was out in the field, a pager would summon them. “You always had spare change in your pocket and try and find a public payphone which wasn’t always the easiest,” Carol Gildea, OneSearch Head of Operations recounts. “It’s like Victorian times,” Liz adds, reflecting on the sheer obstacles posed by communication in those early days.

The physical office mirrored this paper-heavy reality. “Everything used to be held on lever arch files,” Carol explains. “If you wanted to find out to conduct the search you had to check all of the folders individually.” Shelves groaned under the weight of paperwork, maps, and written statements. The morning post wasn’t just a handful of letters; it was “literally sacks and sacks of newspapers for the data collection.” Search results, once compiled, had to be printed, stuffed into huge DX or legal post bags, and physically collected each day. Caroline Taylor, who joined OneSearch in 2006, remembers that “opening all the mail used to be like a task that would typically take all morning.”

The Front Lines: Roadies, Resistance, and Resilience

Liz, Carol, and Heather were among OneSearch’s early roadies, the pioneers who ventured out to councils across Scotland to gather data first-hand. Their job wasn’t just physical; it was often met with resistance.

Carol vividly recalls an encounter with one planner in particular. She needed clarity on a smudged entry in a vast map register, where planning applications were often written in pencil. The planner’s response was, to say the least, a tad hostile.

“I remember them saying things to us like, ‘you’re stealing the bread from our children’s mouths’. They said it so loudly that everyone in the planning department just stopped what they were doing and looked.

“And I thought to myself back then, what kind of company have I joined here?!”

This intense opposition, born from fear of a new, more efficient model, forced OneSearch to be tenacious and innovative. Liz even shared how they had to “create different company names to get in to get more appointments” with councils that limited access.

Despite the challenges, the roadie life fostered a unique camaraderie and deep understanding of the country. Liz’s personal “food run” – collecting Forfar bridies, Arbroath smokies, and Aberdeen butteries for colleagues and neighbours – paints a warm, amusing picture of the lengths they went to. Carol echoes the sentiment: “It was actually one of my favourite roles… I just loved the freedom of meeting people and going to different areas every day.” Even the frustration of receiving a pager notification for an urgent search, miles from home, necessitating a frantic search for a phone box and a “hightail it away back up to the council again,” is remembered with a wry fondness.

Evolution, Adaptation

The journey from those manual, often combative, days to today’s seamless digital operations is a testament to OneSearch’s relentless pursuit of efficiency and quality.

“It’s just amazing to think where we are now in terms of how we operate,” Carol reflects. “Everything is at our fingertips.” The shift from fax machines with queues of people waiting, to instant digital communication with road agents, dramatically cut turnaround times.

Caroline, from her finance perspective, saw this evolution in how OneSearch dealt with councils. “a lot [of the Local Authorities] were very, very resistant to change,” she notes, regarding the move away from cheques to online payments and invoices. COVID-19 ironically became a catalyst for some of these changes, forcing councils to embrace digital access that many have since maintained.

OneSearch’s foresight in adopting a unique model early on – collecting CON29 data in-house – proved prescient. This proactive approach positioned them perfectly for the era of upfront data. Liz recounts how digitalising Local Land Charge registers, once a “pipe dream,” is now a reality. “I’d like to think that we were forward thinking that we just foresaw that rather than just being lucky,” Carol adds.

Resilience: Bouncing Back from the Unimaginable

OneSearch’s 30-year journey isn’t just one of growth; it’s one of profound resilience. Caroline highlights the company’s ability to navigate immense challenges: “We’ve had the banking crash, we’ve had the removal of HIPs overnight, and the business is still here to tell the tale.”

Then there was the fire. An actual fire in the roof of the building. Liz received the call at 4AM, but by lunchtime, thanks to a well-rehearsed disaster recovery plan, OneSearch was “up and running and producing searches again.” Carol remembers competitors even reaching out to offer support during that time, a testament to the industry’s solidarity. The rapid pivot to remote work during the COVID-19 lockdown, with business “not even impacted whatsoever,” further cemented OneSearch’s adaptability.

The Unchanging Core: People and Partnership

Despite all the technological leaps and market upheavals, one thing has remained constant: OneSearch’s unwavering commitment to its people and its customers.

For customers, this translates into a unique service model. Carol, from her time as customer services manager, insists: “We don’t want to be perceived as a call centre. We’re there as a partner and as a support for our customers, so we want to build that relationship.” This personalised support means customer service staff “know exactly who they’re speaking to,” building trust that goes “a long way as to how the business continues to grow.” Even with urgent requests, OneSearch now offers solutions like Express searches and leverages long-standing relationships with councils for favours, ensuring clients get the help they need. The preference for communication may have shifted to email for busy solicitors, but the underlying dedication to direct, helpful conversation remains.

Caroline summarises the incredible journey: “It amazes me the actual resilience of the company… We’ve seen so many bad things happen, but we’ve always bounced back. We’ve always managed to work our way through.”

Now it’s 2025, and OneSearch stands as a beacon of stability and quality, a testament to three decades of adapting, innovating, and prioritising the human element. From commandeering photocopiers and fighting for appointments to instant digital delivery and personalised support, the journey is far from over, but the core commitment to solving the conveyancing puzzle for their partners, perfectly, remains as strong as ever.

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Ready to see how the industry knowledge and experience available at OneSearch can help you and your firm with your property data requirements?  

What if every piece of your conveyancing data simply clicked into place? Sometimes, it must feel like every case is like assembling a thousand-piece jigsaw. 

Your day-to-day involves tightrope walking many deadlines, as well as advising and assuring clients on what is likely to be their biggest life purchase, so of course you are heavily relying on countless pieces of information to ensure everything aligns.  

But what happens when one of these thousand pieces is missing, misprinted, or simply doesn’t fit where it should? 

That’s when the clear path to completion becomes a frustrating labyrinth, and the entire transaction can stall, leaving you, your clients, and your professional reputation exposed to unnecessary risk and stress. 

This isn’t a hypothetical challenge; it’s a persistent reality for many in the profession. The integrity of that underlying property search data is paramount, yet too often, conveyancers find themselves battling inconsistencies, chasing down fragmented data, or uncovering unwelcome surprises late in the process. This takes a significant toll, turning what should be a smooth journey into an ordeal filled with doubt. 

When data tells the wrong story, it creates ripples of uncertainty that can affect everything from client confidence to the deal’s viability. 

At OneSearch, we deeply understand that orchestrating these varied data components into a coherent finished picture is key to stress-free, confident conveyancing. This isn’t just about providing information; it’s about ensuring every single piece of your property data jigsaw is meticulously sourced, expertly verified, seamlessly integrated, and precisely where it should be, giving you the clarity and peace of mind you need from the very start. 

The Challenge: Missing, Misprinted, or Mismatched Pieces 

The complexity of sourcing and combining all these diverse data points presents significant challenges. We often see conveyancers grappling with: 

• Missing Pieces: Critical search results or key data elements being overlooked, leading to glaring gaps in due diligence. 

• Misprinted Pieces: Outdated information or inaccurate records that cause incorrect conclusions and potentially flawed advice. 

• Mismatched Pieces: Conflicting data from different sources that creates doubt, uncertainty, and leads to time-consuming manual cross-referencing. 

These inconsistencies aren’t mere inconveniences. They translate directly into: 

• Costly Delays: Chasing down discrepancies eats into precious time. 

• Disputes & Liabilities: Incorrect advice can lead to client complaints and professional risk. 

• Lost Confidence: For you, your clients, and the other parties in the chain. 

• Fall-Throughs: The ultimate frustration, often triggered by last-minute data surprises. 

In a market often driven by price, the hidden costs of low-quality, fragmented data far outweigh any initial savings. Your peace of mind, your reputation, and your client’s satisfaction are too valuable for compromise. 

The OneSearch Difference: Piecing it Together Perfectly 

At OneSearch, we don’t just understand the data puzzle; we’re built to solve it. We believe trust in your search provider is paramount, and that trust is forged through unwavering data quality, meticulous integrity, and the genuine expertise of our people. We stand as the definitive champion of clarity in conveyancing, committed to transforming your challenges into seamless transactions. 

Our approach to ‘solving the data puzzle’ involves: 

• In-House Mastery: Unlike many providers who outsource, we manage everything in-house. This means we curate and maintain the largest proprietary dataset in the sector, giving us unparalleled control over data quality from source to delivery. 

• Forensic Problem-Solvers: Our dedicated team aren’t just processors; they are ‘data detectives’ trained to go beyond surface-level answers. They actively spot inconsistencies, track down elusive information, and resolve complex queries that others miss. 

• The Triple Check: We don’t take data at face value. Every piece of information undergoes rigorous verification at three key stages: during collection, at point of entry, and crucially, before inclusion in your final search. This ensures your picture is complete and accurate. 

• Exceptional Customer Partnership: Our highly skilled customer service team provides a personal touch. You won’t be passed from pillar to post; whoever picks up your call takes full ownership, ensuring responsive and accountable support. 

By taking this meticulous, people-first approach, we guarantee clarity and confidence for conveyancers. We transform the challenge of fragmented data into the certainty of a perfectly solved puzzle. 

Achieve The Perfect Picture 

You deserve a conveyancing process where every piece clicks into place, every time. Investing in truly trustworthy data is investing in your firm’s efficiency, reputation, and peace of mind. 

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Ready to see how OneSearch can help you assemble the complete conveyancing picture, seamlessly and confidently? 

Are you looking to make your ordering process even smoother? We’ve just released two brand new how-to videos designed to help you navigate our order portal and mapping tool with ease.

Whether you’re a new customer or just need a refresher, these quick guides will help you get the most out of our services.

Watch Our Latest How-To Guides:

• How to place an order via the OneSearch order platform: This video walks you step-by-step through our intuitive order portal. Learn how to easily place new orders, and track the progress of existing or previous ones, all in one convenient place. Say goodbye to confusion and hello to effortless ordering!

• How to use our mapping tool when placing an order: Our mapping tool is a quick and easy replacement for when you are unable to source a pre-existing boundary plan, which is required as part of your order. This video will show you how to effectively use this tool to ensure accuracy and efficiency when placing your orders, saving you time and preventing potential issues.

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We’re committed to providing you with the best possible experience, and these videos are just one more way we’re making it easier for you to do business with us.

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Ready to Dive In?

You can find these new videos, along with our full library of helpful guides, on our official YouTube channel.

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We hope these resources help streamline your ordering process and enhance your experience with us. Do you have any other video topics you’d like to see covered in the future?

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.

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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.

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