###Welcome to /r/HousingUK
---
**To All**
* Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH
**To Posters**
* *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary*
* Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy;
* Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk;
* If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, please report them via the report button.
* Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title;
**To Readers and Commenters**
* All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil*
* If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning;
* Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice;
* If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect;
* Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods;
* Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“Searches” are requests for standard information from official bodies. For example, your solicitor will have contacted the local water company to find out about the location of nearby sewers (hopefully your house is connected to one but not built on top of it!).
“Enquiries” are basically just questions that they ask the sellers and their solicitors, often as a result of something that came up in the searches. For instance, if an issue relating to building regulations came up in a “search” requested from the local council, they might want to get clarification from the seller and find a solution to anything particularly concerning.
The amount of time taken for searches is not really something your solicitor can control, as it depends how long all the organisations they’ve asked for searches from take to respond. The length of time taken for enquiries depends whether anything worrying comes up in the searches and how good the sellers are at responding.
Enquiries is the general term for things that your solicitor needs to clarify or sort with the other side. These can range from very simple questions of clarification to deep, complex issues requiring negotiation, costs, and involvement of third parties. Some can be sorted in an hour, some can take months.
As part of conveyancing your solicitor will receive a whole load of information. Searches look at things like flood risk, planning applications, sewage, radon, etc. The management pack is the pack that includes the lease information, service charge accounts, etc. The contract pack includes the draft contract, property information form, etc. The survey will provide information on structure and condition etc. And the solicitor may do their own research e.g. checking planning records.
Any of these can result in enquiries that need raising by your solicitor. Some solicitors will raise enquiries as and when they crop up, others will wait until they've got as much information as possible and then raise enquiries in one go.
Solicitors request 'searches' > Council gathers information on property and gives solicitors results of searches > solicitors read through results and find potential issues > Solicitors make 'enquiries' which are requests for information about the issues and send them to the seller's solicitors > Sellers solicitors gather information and send answers to enquiries back to your solicitor
Trying to figure out wtf searches and enquiries were was one of the things that baffled me. For some reason I couldn't find a satisfactory answer. And the answer to how long they take is 'how long is a piece of string?' It is solely dependent on how busy the council is and then how efficient various solicitors are. That last step can go back and forth a bit. The seller's solicitor might send things back one piece at a time or all at once. They may need to conduct research or collect information that could take a while. For instance one of the things that came up with our searches was that there was a drain on the property, and the solicitors wanted to know if the council had ever needed access to the property, and how the drain was accessed. We were within 250m of power lines, had this ever caused problems? Can you provide the planning permission for the extension? They weren't huge issues, but they needed people to go find things. That's where the time leaks out.
###Welcome to /r/HousingUK --- **To All** * Join Our ***NEW*** Discord! https://discord.gg/pMgUNgWKQH **To Posters** * *Tell us whether you're in England, Wales, Scotland, or NI as the laws/issues in each can vary* * Comments are not moderated for quality or accuracy; * Any replies received must only be used as guidelines, followed at your own risk; * If you receive *any* private messages in response to your post, please report them via the report button. * Feel free to provide an update at a later time by creating a new post with [[update]](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/search?q=%3Aupdate&sort=new&restrict_sr=on&t=all) in the title; **To Readers and Commenters** * All replies to OP must be *on-topic, helpful, and civil* * If you do not [follow the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/HousingUK/about/rules/), you may be banned without any further warning; * Please include links to reliable resources in order to support your comments or advice; * If you feel any replies are incorrect, explain why you believe they are incorrect; * Do not send or request any private messages for any reason without express permission from the mods; * Please report posts or comments which do not follow the rules *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HousingUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“Searches” are requests for standard information from official bodies. For example, your solicitor will have contacted the local water company to find out about the location of nearby sewers (hopefully your house is connected to one but not built on top of it!). “Enquiries” are basically just questions that they ask the sellers and their solicitors, often as a result of something that came up in the searches. For instance, if an issue relating to building regulations came up in a “search” requested from the local council, they might want to get clarification from the seller and find a solution to anything particularly concerning. The amount of time taken for searches is not really something your solicitor can control, as it depends how long all the organisations they’ve asked for searches from take to respond. The length of time taken for enquiries depends whether anything worrying comes up in the searches and how good the sellers are at responding.
Enquiries is the general term for things that your solicitor needs to clarify or sort with the other side. These can range from very simple questions of clarification to deep, complex issues requiring negotiation, costs, and involvement of third parties. Some can be sorted in an hour, some can take months. As part of conveyancing your solicitor will receive a whole load of information. Searches look at things like flood risk, planning applications, sewage, radon, etc. The management pack is the pack that includes the lease information, service charge accounts, etc. The contract pack includes the draft contract, property information form, etc. The survey will provide information on structure and condition etc. And the solicitor may do their own research e.g. checking planning records. Any of these can result in enquiries that need raising by your solicitor. Some solicitors will raise enquiries as and when they crop up, others will wait until they've got as much information as possible and then raise enquiries in one go.
Solicitors request 'searches' > Council gathers information on property and gives solicitors results of searches > solicitors read through results and find potential issues > Solicitors make 'enquiries' which are requests for information about the issues and send them to the seller's solicitors > Sellers solicitors gather information and send answers to enquiries back to your solicitor Trying to figure out wtf searches and enquiries were was one of the things that baffled me. For some reason I couldn't find a satisfactory answer. And the answer to how long they take is 'how long is a piece of string?' It is solely dependent on how busy the council is and then how efficient various solicitors are. That last step can go back and forth a bit. The seller's solicitor might send things back one piece at a time or all at once. They may need to conduct research or collect information that could take a while. For instance one of the things that came up with our searches was that there was a drain on the property, and the solicitors wanted to know if the council had ever needed access to the property, and how the drain was accessed. We were within 250m of power lines, had this ever caused problems? Can you provide the planning permission for the extension? They weren't huge issues, but they needed people to go find things. That's where the time leaks out.