Waiting times for local authority searches now ‘postcode lottery’

Moverly's CEO reveals huge variations of between 11 and 51-day waits for local authority searches, delays that put thousands of property sales in jeopardy every year.

moverly local authority searches

Moverly has analysed the average time it takes for every local authority in England & Wales to return a Local Authority Searches and how this turnaround time has changed since the start of 2023.

Its data reveals that, across all 344 local authorities, the average time it takes to return a search currently stands at 11 days.

That is a decrease of four days, which will be welcomed by any buyers and sellers who are currently navigating the often drawn-out conveyancing process.

Not all good news

It’s not all good news, though, as Moverly’s analysis shows that waiting times can vary significantly from authority to authority.

The London Borough of Hackney (pictured) has the longest wait times, taking an average 51 days to return a search. In Camden, Oldham, Islington and East Lindsey District Council it’s 46 days.

But there are 75 local authorities that have average turnaround times of less than 10 days and in Southend-on-Sea it takes just two days and three days in York and Gateshead.

Despite the fall in the average wait times, more than half of all councils have seen turnaround times increase since the start of 2023.

Some buyers are getting them back in 48 hours while others are waiting for well over a month.”

Hackney, Islington and South Ribble saw the biggest increases at +26 days but Gloucester’s wait time fell by a massive 177 days to just 11.

Gemma Young, Moverly CEO (main image) says: “We can see from the data that homebuyers are facing a genuine postcode lottery when it comes to how long they’re being forced to wait for local authority searches to be completed.

“Some buyers are getting them back in 48 hours while others are waiting for well over a month. And when buyers are being held up, so too are sellers.”

Moverly specialises in material information compliance for the real estate sector.


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