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Conveyancing
Searches are how you find out what you cannot see from a viewing. Here is what each one covers and which ones matter in South Wales.
5 min read · Last reviewed 2026-08-14
The core search, and the one lenders always require. It reveals planning permissions and refusals affecting the property, building regulations approvals, enforcement notices, whether the road is adopted and maintained at public expense, conservation area or listed status, tree preservation orders, and nearby road schemes.
Turnaround varies enormously by council — some return in days, others take weeks. Your solicitor should order it at the very start rather than waiting for enquiries.
Confirms whether the property is connected to mains water and mains foul and surface water drainage, where the public sewer runs, and whether a public sewer crosses the boundary — which matters if you intend to extend, because building over a public sewer needs the water company's agreement.
Covers contaminated land risk from historic industrial use, landfill, flood risk, ground stability and radon. In South Wales, historic industrial and coalfield use makes this more than a formality — a result flagged as further action required usually needs a specialist follow-up report rather than being waved through.
Required across most of the South Wales coalfield, including large parts of Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Rhondda Cynon Taf and the Newport and Swansea valleys fringe. It reports past, present and proposed underground workings, mine entries near the property, subsidence claims and ground stability.
A search that comes back with findings is common and is not automatically a problem — but it needs reading properly, and where a mine entry is close to the property a further stability report may be needed before a lender will proceed.
Depending on the property and the lender, your solicitor may also recommend:
If you are buying with a mortgage, effectively no — the lender requires them and your solicitor acts for the lender as well as you. Cash buyers can decline, and some do to save time, but you are then accepting the risk of an enforcement notice, a road that is not adopted, or contaminated land with no way to discover it.
Search indemnity insurance is sometimes offered as a substitute. It protects against financial loss from an undisclosed issue; it does not tell you what the issue is, which is usually the thing you actually wanted to know.