Policy & Resources Cabinet Member – Minutes – 8 March 2013

50   (50) REVIEW OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE LOCAL LAND CHARGES SERVICE AND LEGAL SERVICES CHARGING POLICY – The Director of Policy and Resources submitted a report which outlined the performance of the Local Land Charges Service, and sought approval to amend the charges made by both the Local Land Charges Service and also Legal Services.

The number of searches undertaken in the current year to date demonstrated a decrease when compared with the previous year.  Local Land Charges income reached the sum of £88,030.90 at the end of January 2013 against a profiled year to date budget of £97,840.00.  The number of personal searches carried out by private search companies for the current year to date (i.e. up to 31 January 2013) was 740 which was more than 2011/2012, but significantly less than for the whole of the year 2008/09 when 2736, and for the whole of the year 2009/10 when 2308 were carried out

The Local Land Charges Service had ensured that 100% of searches had met North Lincolnshire Council’s performance indicator of an eight day turn around.

Details of the revised Local Land Charges were outlined within the report.

The Cabinet Member was advised that a review had also been undertaken of the charges made by Legal Services following the latest report received from the CIPFA Benchmarking Club.

It was considered that retaining the current fees was considered to be appropriate and would ensure that the charges made by North Lincolnshire Council were in line with those charged by other authorities.

Resolved – (a)  That the local land charge fee structure as set out in paragraph 3.2 of the report be implemented with effect from 1 April 2013, and (b) that the legal fees as proposed in the Appendix to the report be adopted with effect from 1 April 2013.