Personal Searches

Personal Searches

A personal search may be conducted by anyone, but in practice these are usually done by private companies.

The local land charges register is now provided through the HM Land Registry Service.  You can access the HMLR Local Land Charge Service through your HM Land Registry portal account, business gateway and on the gov.uk website:- Search for local land charges on land and property - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Register of Planning Applications and Decisions

The Register of Planning Applications and Decisions is maintained by the Planning Services Team at Boston Borough Council, Municipal Buildings, West Street, Boston, Lincs, PE21 8QR.

The information is freely available by personal inspection of the Register.

The record of planning applications and decisions from 1985 to the present day is available to view on the council's website:- Planning Applications Search. Records between 1948 and 1993 are also held manually and the individual records are held on microfiche.

The Register is available for inspection between 9am and 4pm on Thursdays.  There is an appointment system and access is limited to one computer in the Municipal Buildings, West Street, Boston.  Appointments can be made by emailing your request to: the Planning Services Team

Personal searchers will not be limited in the number of searches they wish to undertake within the allotted time slots.  Appointments will not be permitted to run beyond the times detailed above even where search companies attend the council offices to undertake their searches after the commencement of the appointment time. 

A member of staff will be available for assistance at most times.  Any limitations arising from staffing levels, for example staff shortages due to annual leave/sickness will be explained when booking the appointment.  However, this will be the exception rather than the norm.

At the time of making the appointment the name and contact details of the personal search company and the address details of the property or properties to be searched must be provided.

If an appointment is no longer required, please email the Planning Services Team so that the appointment can be made available for other users of the service.

It is the responsibility of the person carrying out the personal search to identify relevant information from the register and make any notes.  Planning staff may offer factual clarification of what is available but are under no obligation to answer any supplementary or additional enquiries.  Any subsequent enquiries should be directed to the Technical Support Team by email - the Planning Services Team and a response will be provided in due course.