Personal Searches

A personal search may be conducted by anyone, but in practice these are usually done by private companies.

Access to the local land charges register and planning records will be made available to all personal search companies.

Searching the local land charges register

TThe local land charges register is held in paper format at the local land charges office and under Rule 7 of the Local Land Charges Rules 1977 conditional planning consents are held on the planning register. An appointment to view the registers held within the local land charges section, Municipal Buildings, West Street, Boston, PE21 8QR can be made. Three hour appointment slots (9.30am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 5pm) are available Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and are on a first come, first served basis.

Appointments exclude bank holidays and any period the offices are closed to the public between 25 December and 1 January each year.

A member of staff is available for assistance at most times. Any limitations arising from staffing issues (for example, staff shortages due to annual leave) will be explained when booking an appointment to visit the local land charges office. However, this will be the exception rather than the norm.

To make an appointment to inspect the local land charges register, please contact the local land charges section on 01205 314214.
Personal searchers will not be limited in the number of searches they wish to undertake within the three hour slots. Appointments will not be permitted to run beyond the times detailed above even where search companies attend the council offices to undertake their searches after the commencement of the appointment time.

At the time of making the appointment the name and contact details of the personal search company and the address details of the property to be searched must be provided.

A clear plan of the property or land to be searched must be provided to the local land charges office no later than 24 hours prior to the time of the appointment. The plan must be emailed to landcharges@boston.gov.uk,  Failure to supply the necessary plans may result in the cancellation of your appointment or some information not being made available.

If an appointment is no longer required, please call the above number to cancel so that the appointment can be made available for other users of the service.

It is the responsibility of a person carrying out a personal search to identify relevant information from the register and make any notes. Local land charge staff may offer factual clarification of what is available but are under no obligation to answer any supplementary or additional enquiries.

Access to information for Unrefined CON29 enquiries

To comply with government guidance, Unrefined Con29 Data will be made available to view at the land charges section between the attendance hours listed for personal searches.

The following steps need to be followed:-

• Contact the local land charges section on 01205 314214 to book an appointment. At least three clear working days is required for unrefined data requests.
• Email a clear location plan of the property or land to be searched along with a completed unrefined data application form.