Our Video Resources

Buying your first home is one of life’s biggest milestones — and it can feel both exciting and daunting. Here are our essential tips for buying your first home — brought to you by the team that helps hundreds of buyers make informed decisions every day.

Property Searches Direct was born out of a very real frustration with the way property is bought and sold in England & Wales. We created the company to make a difference and to help make the moving process more transparent, friendlier and more collaborative. We believe that the most important element in each and every transaction is the home mover themselves and that their experience is invariably less than positive. Why is that? Quite simply there are too many parties that work in silos that often fail to communicate effectively and are highly resistant to change, leaving you, the home mover, completely in the dark. Our national obsession with property is ancient, feudal even, creating a process driven clunky experience that has only been modernised slightly in recent decades. OK, granted, we have electronic identification, source of funds and online mapping of title, but transactions now take upwards of 15 weeks to complete. Roughly a third of transactions fail, costing home movers and the industry itself staggering sums on wasted fees and time, significantly affecting the transaction timescales for those that do complete. So what can be done? We believe fundamentally that when information is obtained at the beginning of a transaction, both buyers and sellers are empowered to make better decisions. Expecting property professionals to take full responsibility, is a recipe for disaster in our view. Our search reports are shared with home movers and their conveyancers at the same time, and Property Searches Direct is on hand to answer any questions. We made our Hazard Checker publicly available so that a simple postcode search indicates what issues might affect the enjoyment of the area. It is the same information that a conveyancer sees if they place a search order, but we offer these valuable insights to home movers themselves, so that conversations about these risks can take place even before a purchase is agreed. We make all property searches available to home movers to satisfy themselves whether they want to proceed or not, particularly if the results are not to their liking. Many buyers have told us that Searches revealed facts that led them to look for something more suitable, why would you wait until the end of a transaction to see that information. Pulling out of a transaction is unpleasant for all concerned. Upfront data empowers home movers and reduces stress and wasted effort for everyone. Whether you are buying or selling a property, or are a property professional yourself, we ask you to reconsider the well trodden path and explore a more efficient way to do things. Why not help us to improve the way in which property is bought and sold, by engaging with the upfront information revolution. Why not obtain and share information earlier and help speed up transaction timescales with Property-Searches Direct.

Property Searches Direct help home movers to get information sooner, speed up their transactions and make more informed decisions along the way. Providing direct access to reports and a search expert to help answer any questions that people may have.

How do Property Searches Direct help people who are looking to sell property? How can they help speed up property transactions and better prepare sellers for the tasks at hand? Brace yourselves! You could be in for a tough ride if you are not getting prepared. Selling a property is NOT as straightforward as an Estate Agent might tell you. They have the relatively easy part of finding you a buyer, but that's just one small part of the journey. The best thing that you can do, WAY ahead of finding a buyer or instructing an Estate Agent, is to engage with a decent conveyancer or solicitor. They will provide you with various documents to get them instructed. These will include a set of 'Standard Protocol Forms'. These forms can take a while to complete however, once you have completed them and found all of the supporting paperwork to go with them, you will be able to put your conveyancer in a position to get you 'contract ready'. Contract ready means that as soon as you do have a buyer in place, a contract will be able to go from your conveyancer to theirs in a matter of days, not only saving a significant amount of time, but enabling your buyers conveyancer to get on with the purchase transaction straight away. As Estate Agents are now required to meet with 'Material Information Regulations' as imposed by Trading Standards, you will have a number of questions to answer. We have put a fair amount of information about the subject on our "selling a property" page, however, sellers would be advised to obtain some documentary evidence for marketing purposes. This would include an environmental report, a local authority search and a copy of your title deeds.We have put these together in our "Sellers Pack" that you can find on this page. Copies of the reports will be sent to you, your conveyancer and estate agent as they complete, so that information contained can be disclosed to meet with the regulations. The great news is that although these documents may not be able to be used by your buyer, the information contained will help your conveyancer to answer any enquiries raised faster, and (if sent to your buyers conveyancer) enable them to progress their side of. things faster too. If at any point you have any questions that you would like to ask us, please get in touch by email, webchat or phone as we'd be delighted to help. #buyingproperty #conveyancing #sellingahome

Find out about Chancel Repair Liability Risk, what it is and what Chancel Repair Indemnity Policies are available to help protect you from possible claims. Far too many people are being provided with chancel searches that show whether there is a known risk. This is expensive and not helpful for home buyers. We suggest buying a No Search Chancel Indemnity Insurance Policy. Watch to find out why. Welcome to this video where I will be looking at Chancel Repair Liability risk and the Chancel Indemnity Insurance policies that you can get to protect yourself from claims. Let's quickly explain what a Chancel Repair Liability is. If your property is located on land in England or Wales, that was previously owned by, or liable to the local Anglican church, or, you own a property in an historical area that may be liable for unexpected church repairs, this is known as a Chancel Repair Liability Risk. The Chancel is the part of an Anglican Parish Church that contains the Choir and Altar. If you are at the early stages of buying a property, please check your conveyancing quote and see whether your conveyancer is planning to charge you for a Chancel Repair Liability Search. If they are, it may be worth asking them to not do one and save your money. All a search will do is cost you money to tell you that, either you are liable for repairs, or you are not liable for repairs. If you are not liable, the search will have cost more than a no search chancel insurance policy. If it states that there is a known liability, the insurance policy is likely to be more expensive because you are aware of the risk. So, it is better to insure against an unknown risk than to find out of a risk exists, I hope that makes sense? A vital thing to know is whether there is a mention of a chancel liability risk on your title deed as this will greatly affect your premium costs. Your conveyancer will have a copy of your title deed, so asking to see a copy should be no trouble at all. If you wish to get a copy of the existing title deed yourself, Property Searches Direct can get a copy for you. You will find a link to get one in our shop. We provide a No Search Chancel Indemnity Liability insurance policy in our shop that will provide you with cover of up to £500,000 This is likely to be more than you will ever need. You just need to check and confirm that you meet with the assumptions of the policy. One thing to note is that the size of the chancel liability policy bears no relation to the value of a property. This is something that many conveyancers (and lenders for that matter) invariably get confused about; suggesting that a £500,000 policy will not be ok for a property valued at £800,000 But of course it will.The sum relates to the amount of funds being made available for a claim, and the value of the property is not considered in that calculation. The claim amount will total the cost of the repair, divided between the number of homes within the parish catchment. We also provide a policy for people who have had a chancel search done and are aware of a known or potential liability, but there is no mention of the liability on the Title Deeds. Again, you need to check the assumptions before buying it. It is worth noting that you should not buy any of the Chancel Indemnity Policies until you have exchanged. Many people will buy them as they complete to get the policy on risk at the point of moving in. If you do not meet with the assumption and need a bespoke quote, please get in touch with us via phone, web chat or email and we will be delighted to assist you further. #buyingproperty #conveyancing #buyingahome

What is a Drainage & Water report and why do you need one. These are available to Property Searches Direct and come within our search packs to save money. Today we are looking at the Drainage & Water report which is one of the three reports that you must have in place for a property transaction involving a mortgage. This is a key report in residential and commercial transactions and is an essential part of the conveyancing process. It is imperative that you are able to understand your liability for the maintenance of drainage & water pipes, whether the property is connected to the public sewer and how close the property is to any of the mains infrastructure. The report consists of two main sections. The first is the Drainage Enquiries. These provide clarity of the following points: Confirmation of sewerage undertaker, an Extract of public sewer map, Surface water connection, Adoption status, Drainage assets within the boundary, the Distance of public sewer to any building within the property and its Foul Sewer Connection. The second is the Water Enquiries section. These provide clarity of the following points: Confirmation of water undertaker, a Map of waterworks, Mains water connection, Adoption status and any Water assets within boundary. This search is backed by a comprehensive PI policy, which will safeguard all involved against any mistakes that may originate from water company datasets. It will also extend the same protection against the unlikely event of errors and omissions by OneSearch Direct (our supplier). Security is further strengthened with the inclusion of 6 years run-off cover, which ensures that any relevant claims are still honoured. Copies of a sample report can be downloaded from our website if you wanted to take a look before placing an order. These are included in the majority of our search bundles to save you money as the bundles are discounted. So there you have it. If you do have any questions about the types of searches we have available please do reach out to us by email, phone or web chat. We look forward to hearing from you soon. #buyingproperty #conveyancing #buyingahome

What is a Local Authority Search, why do you need one and why you should get one from Property Searches Direct. Welcome to our quick look at what a Local Authority Search is and why you need one for your property purchase. Essentially a Local Authority Search is a vital part of the conveyancing (Home Buying) process and is one of the three required documents alongside the environmental report and the Drainage & Water report. They can reveal information that may lead you to renegotiate your offer or even withdraw altogether. They are always required when buying a property with a mortgage. A local authority Search comes in two parts, an LLC1 and a CON29. The LLC1 is the Local Land Charges Register search, which covers any planning agreements, enforcement notices, listed buildings information, light obstruction notices, aviation, financial charges or restrictions associated with the land or property itself. All of these and more entries place a restriction on the property that the owner is liable for, which could impact them financially or in the way that they can enjoy the property. They can include things like, Is the property listed, Is it located in a Smoke Controlled area, Is it in a conservation area, Or would you require a Renovation Grant? It also looks at planning agreements and any conditional planning permissions. All of the LLC1 findings are legally binding on each successive owner, so you will inherit any issues that arise, which is why you need to be confident that you are happy with the findings. The CON29 provides information relating to Public Highways, and any proposed rail routes, planning decisions or new roads that could affect the property, as well as any breaches of planning permissions or building regulations, outstanding statutory notices or the existence of a compulsory purchase order. The CON29 requirements have had several revisions but the standard enquiries cover Planning history, Building control regulation, Highways information (including road scheme proposals), Proposed tree preservation orders, Proposed planning enforcement or breach of condition notices, Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), Assets of community value, Rail schemes and proposals, Public footpaths shown on definitive maps and are answered using a standard set of 29 questions; which is why this section is called the CON29 Our regulated Local Authority Search, ie, those that are completed by a team of dedicated search agents (rather than staff at the council) are presented in a really user-friendly format. They are designed to ensure that the reader can get to the information that they want to see as quickly as possible. The front page, as shown here, is an overview, giving a high level indication of the reports findings. The second page is the contents page. You will see that it is colour co-ordinated so that the sections within the report can be easily identified. So if you wish to find out about contaminated land findings, you would head for the red section and Planning & Building Regs would be found in the blue section. After the contents page, each section will be presented in colour order, starting with the Search of the Land Charges Register, before moving on to the remaining sections. If at any time, once you have received your local authority search, you have any questions, the team at Property Searches Direct are available to help you. Chances are, we are going to be a lot easier to get hold of than your busy conveyancer. But to be fair, your conveyancer is best left alone to get on with their work, rather than being interrupted as they get hundreds of calls every day from clients, advisors and estate agents, it's any wonder they manage to get any work done during a working day. The next section is a Search information sheet. This page provides you with any useful contact numbers for commercial entities that have featured in the report that you may wish to make contact with if you have any further enquiries. Our Regulated Local Authority Search is appropriate for all Residential or Commercial Property Transactions. Before placing an order, it is always well worth having a look at our Lender Checker. This will help to confirm that your lender is happy to accept a Regulated Search (as most are these days). If they are listed and say no, you will need to get in touch via web chat, email or phone and ask us for a quote, as Official Searches (those completed by council staff) vary in price across each local authority area. So that's a Local Authority Search. If you have any questions about this or any of the other reports that we make available, please get in touch. #buyingproperty #conveyancing #buyingahome

Take a look at how Property Searches Direct can help you with your next property transaction. Take control of your searches, speed up your transaction and get information far earlier in the process. If you are thinking about buying a property, one thing that you can take control of is your Searches. Searches are a set of documents that you need to have in place that give you information about the water and drainage connections, the environmental impact from flooding, ground stability, contaminated land, coastal erosion, solar and wind farms and much more, as well as information about planning history, building control, tree preservation orders, planning enforcements and so on. These documents need to be seen by your conveyancer or solicitor, as your lender (if you are getting a mortgage) will insist on the results being seen. Your conveyancer will usually order these for you and keep the results in their files until many weeks into the transaction. But if you want to see the results far sooner to make sure that you are making the right decisions, Property Searches Direct can help you to understand exactly what you need and how to get an order underway. The great news is that not only do they usually cost less than the conveyancer will charge, but the reports that you order are shared with the conveyancer to use for the transaction. So nothing is being doubled up. The environmental report comes back within an hour or so of the order being placed and you can start to raise further questions with the seller about flood risk (or whatever comes up), as well as discussing the level of survey with a surveyor based on the findings in the report. The great thing is that you can call Property Searches Direct about the results as they are much easier to get hold of than your busy conveyancer. So what are you waiting for? Visit Property Searches Direct at propertysearchesdirect.co.uk and get your searches underway. Just remember to tell your conveyancer that you are ordering them so they don't have to. #buyingproperty #conveyancing #buyingahome

What is a Search Bundle and why do we make them available to home movers at Property Searches Direct. Welcome to our quick look at what a Search Bundle is and why we make them available for your property purchase. Essentially a Search Pack (or Bundle) contains at least the three reports that are required for the conveyancing (Home Buying) process.It will include a Local Authority Search, a comprehensive environmental report and a Drainage & Water report. They can reveal information that may lead you to renegotiate your offer or even withdraw altogether and they are always required when buying a property with a mortgage.We simply make them available for home movers to buy rather than waiting for a conveyancer to get around to it in several days or weeks time. This enables you to make decisions about your move far earlier, saving you time and money. At Property Searches Direct we bundle up reports and apply discounts to help save home-movers money. Our Search Bundles are a great place to start when your are ready to proceed with your purchase. They can be found in our on-line shop by using the category filter for 'Search Pack Bundles'. You will see that we have a few options available depending on the transaction type, and the complexity of the environmental reporting that has been included. Our most popular bundle is called the "Residential Purchase Search Pack" ("I know, really imaginative right?) and it includes all three of the required reports. We include a Regulated Local Authority Search, the Groundsure Homebuyer's report and a Drainage & Water report. There is also a letter that you can send to your conveyancer to let them know which reports they will be receiving from us, covering off report compliance and insurance details to put their minds at ease. Before placing an order, it is always well worth having a look at our Lender Checker. This will help to confirm that your lender is happy to accept the Regulated Search contained in the bundle (as most are these days). If they are listed and say no, you will need to get in touch and ask us for a quote as Official Searches (those completed by council staff) vary in price across each local authority area. If you have any questions about our search bundles or any of the reports that we make available, please get in touch by email, phone or web chat. We look forward to hearing from you soon and helping you to get your transaction underway faster. #buyingproperty #conveyancing #buyingahome