Buying a house but who is supposed to do the planning search?

D

Donrr123

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As title, I got the draft contract from the solicitor and they are telling me go to the local authority planning office with a list of query for the planning search. I had an engineer checked out the house and he told me this planning search should be done by my solicitor because it should be my solicitor telling me everything is ok, rather than myself telling the solicitor I did the planning search and everything looks ok.

I wonder any thoughts?

I put edit below cos I have to wait 6000 seconds to make new reply LOL

But though if I switch what I am supposed to do? Do I ring my solicitor and tell him transfer all documentation to the new solicitor I found?

Knuttell said:
Your solicitor is not a solicitor. Where did you come across this charlatan?
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Well just google cos I don't know good solicitor, this one seems okay cos they are in business for 50 years and they had a court case obtaining the highest injure settlement €7.25 million. (Obv this is a different solicitor dealing with court case)
But in my opinion this guy is really hard to deal with and he does not tell me anything, even before the draft contract I was asking what I am going to do next he was like when we get the draft contract I will send you an email about what happen next.
 
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I've bought a good few properties and agreed the fee with the same solicitor over the last 30 odd years and never has she told me that I need to do searches.
 
To be fair they did some work like finding the documents? I am not sure but everything he sent me seems like based from what the vendor solicitor sent him tho...
From what I can see is he is asked me to provide the planning documents to the engineer to check when the survey is carried out, there is a certificate of compliance with planning permission and final grant of planning ref XXX.

Again not sure what those are because this guy has never told me anything, like is it solicitor job again or what
Knuttell said:
Sounds to me like the client has been doing all the work.;)
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I think the land registration and folio is provided by the vendor solicitor? I bet this guy has done nothing except sent me the email
 
We went through this process a few months ago. Initially our own surveyer conducted the planning search at no extra charge, but our solicitor said the result wasn't adequate (he said most surveyers 'don't do it properly'). He appointed someone he used regularly to do the search and we paid €220 for this. Certainly there was never any question of our doing the search ourselves.
 
Do they mean that you should inform yourself of any relevant planning in the area you propose to buy eg a large apt block going up behind, a new school or supermarket that will bring additional traffic?
 
Generally the Solicitor did any searches for us - no questions asked. On the last purchase we arranged for a survey as soon as we agreed a price and before any contracts signed. The Engineer conducted the planning search - it wasn't even discussed, he just did it. The Solicitor was surprised but seemed satisfied with the result.
 
I suspect that you misunderstood the solicitor.

I am not a solicitor but as far as I am aware, they have a checklist for closing and will do various searches at the time of closing to make sure that everything is ok.

He might have been suggesting to you to do a search of the planning in the area to make sure that there were no other developments which might affect you but have no legal effect.
For example, your solicitor would have be sure that the house you are buying complies with planning permissions.
But if there is a permission to build a nuclear power station down the road, your solicitor would not be interested, but you might well be.

Brendan
 
What it says is "We also advise that you attend at the Local Authority planning office to ensure that there are no plans for road widening or permission granted for adjoining property that would adversely affect your interest and purchase", so Brendan you might be right, but if this is the case I have to do it myself and use this list of whatever 20 questions he provided? It also confused me too because as ppl said above most ppl's solicitor do the searches.
 
The solicitor's search is to ensure that any planning conditions linked to the property have been met.

The solicitor will not be looking for future planning to see if a new road or a new building or something else which might interfere with your property - that is up to you
 
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