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The search findings that stall a mortgage — flood insurability, mining, unadopted roads and leasehold terms — checked before the application goes in rather than after the valuation.
Why it reaches you
A case does not usually fail on the lending. It fails on the property.
You have placed the case, the client is happy and the valuation is booked. Then the searches come back and something on them changes what the lender will do — or what the client can insure. By then you have done the work twice.
Most of what does this is knowable at the outset, from data that takes minutes to obtain.
The five that cause the most trouble
- Flood risk the client cannot insure at a sensible premium
- A recorded mine entry within 20 metres of the boundary
- An unadopted road carrying a maintenance and adoption liability
- Contaminated land liability under Part 2A on former industrial ground
- Leasehold terms — short lease, escalating ground rent, building safety
What a pre-application check covers
Send us the address before the application goes in and we will run the data-based reports and tell you plainly whether there is anything on them a lender or an insurer will care about. No account needed to ask.
Useful to know
- Flood Re does not cover homes built after 1 January 2009
- Nor most leasehold blocks of more than three units
- Coal referral areas cover far more housing than people expect
- Lenders’ requirements differ — Part 2 of the Handbook is the place to check
- Most search findings are solvable given time; the problem is finding them late
More from us
Related searches
Flood Risk Reports
River, coastal, surface water and insurability
Learn moreCoal Mining Searches
CON29M and mining referral areas
Learn moreEnvironmental Searches
Contaminated land, ground risk and liability
Learn moreRegulated Local Authority Searches
The council’s own search, England & Wales
Learn moreQuestions
Questions from advisers and brokers
We are not the ones ordering searches. Why does this matter to us?
Because search findings are one of the commonest reasons a case that looked straightforward stops dead. Flood risk that cannot be insured, a mine entry near the boundary, an unadopted road, a short lease — each of those can pull a valuation or an offer. Knowing early lets you place the case with a lender that will actually take it.
Can you check a property before we submit?
Yes. Send us the address and we can run the data-based reports — flood, environmental, mining, ground stability — before an application goes in. It costs very little relative to a declined case and a month of wasted work.
What most often derails a mortgage on search findings?
Insurability is the biggest single one: a property in a high flood band, or a post-2009 build outside Flood Re, where cover is expensive or unavailable. After that, mine entries within 20 metres, contaminated land, unadopted roads with a liability attached, and leasehold terms — short leases, escalating ground rent and unresolved building safety.
Do you work with brokers directly?
Yes, on an account like any other. Some brokers order pre-application checks themselves; others refer clients to us alongside their conveyancing recommendation. Either works.
Is there a referral arrangement?
Talk to us. We would rather agree something straightforward and transparent than pretend referrals do not happen.
Got a case you are not sure about?
Send us the address. We will tell you what is on the data before you place it.
Or call 0151 652 4184 — telephone support seven days a week