This article gives information on local authority hot issues that affect services such as delivery of searches 

Products Affected:

• Official Local Authority Search
• Regulated Local Authority Search

Reason:

• Local Land Charges have informed us due to planned essential software changes and data migration, there will be a temporary disruption from Thursday 9th April 2026 until Thursday 30th April 2026 to the South Oxfordshire District Council and Vale of White Horse District Council Local Land Charges service in which no searches can be processed or returned.

Update 13/07/2026:

• Further to the notification issued on Monday 6th July 2026, Local Land Charges are still looking into the issues that have arisen following the software migration and searches are still unable to be processed and returned.
  
  For context, the system was originally expected to go live several weeks ago; however, due to ongoing internal issues and implementation delays, this timeframe has been pushed back. Local Land Charges are having multiple meetings a day with their IT and software provider to ensure all avenues are being looked at and are actively attempting to fix the technical issues.
  
  Unfortunately, no alternative process or workaround is available at present. As a result, all affected searches remain on hold and cannot be progressed until the new system has been fully implemented and is functioning correctly.
  
  We appreciate the frustration and inconvenience these ongoing delays may cause and would like to reassure you that we are maintaining regular contact with the Local Land Charges manager to monitor the situation closely. We have also queried whether any compensation can be offered as a result of the delays and this question is currently being looked into by senior management. We will provide a further update as soon as we receive confirmation that the system is live and search processing has resumed.

Expected Delay:

• Their turnaround time has been increased from 70 to 80 working days due to the downtime.

Options:

• What we can offer is to provide a search delayed indemnity policy. If you would like to proceed with this option, then please send us the limit of indemnity so we can provide you with an accurate quote. Otherwise, we will keep chasing the Local Authority and have the completed search back with you as soon as possible. 
• Follow this article to be alerted of updates as we receive them