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The HouseDossier fieldnotes
Practical guides to the records behind a home. Find useful evidence, understand its limits and know what to ask next.
How we approach our guidesStart here · Data explainers
The title register and plan answer different questions. Use this buyer’s checklist to connect the legal documents with the house, garden, parking and access you actually viewed.
A road can look finished while its maintenance arrangements remain unresolved. Find the evidence for adoption, access and shared repair bills before you commit.
A driveway you can physically use is only the start. Check the route, the permitted uses and the maintenance arrangement against the actual deeds before you buy.
A short entry in a title register can refer to obligations hidden in another deed. Find the wording, match it to your plans and ask the right questions before you buy.
A listed home’s paperwork deserves the same attention as its character. Check the listing, match alterations to consents and plan repairs before you commit.
Conservation-area status and Article 4 directions answer different questions. Find the documents that apply to the exact address before budgeting for alterations.
The service charge in a listing does not tell you the whole cost of owning a flat. Review the accounts, reserve fund and major-works position before you set your budget.
A radon area flag describes probability, not a measurement in the home. Learn which reports to request and how to distinguish mapping, testing and follow-up work.
A public sewer can run through a private garden, and a drainage map may not show every pipe. Check what the search, survey and consent documents each establish.
Official searches arrive weeks after you have already committed to a price. Here is which checks are worth running yourself and when, which must come from the official search, and the specific places buyers end up paying for the same information twice.
Twelve checks every UK buyer should run before making an offer - flood risk, subsidence, crime, sold prices, EPC and more - with step-by-step instructions for the free official tools.
A practical guide to buying in England and Wales, with a dated example budget, key documents and checks to organise from preparation to completion.
Every question to ask at a house viewing, organised by who can actually answer it: the estate agent, the vendor, or a free government dataset you can check before you even book.
Understand the difference between a mortgage valuation and a home survey, choose a suitable inspection level and prepare questions about the property’s condition.
Freehold means you own the property and the land outright; leasehold means you own it for a fixed term while someone else owns the building. Here's what each really costs, which reforms are actually in force in 2026, and how to check any property's tenure free in three minutes.
What every conveyancing search actually reveals, what each one costs in 2026, how long they really take — and the free official datasets that let you preview most of them before you spend a penny on legal fees.
How to investigate suspected or historic subsidence before buying: gather reports, arrange appropriate professional advice and confirm mortgage and insurance terms.
From starting your search to getting keys, buying a UK house typically takes 4–6 months — 12–16 weeks of that is offer to completion. Here's the stage-by-stage 2026 timeline, what stretches each stage, and the pre-offer checks that genuinely cut weeks off.
An estate agent’s band label is only part of the running-cost calculation. Check the official list, the local charge and whether alterations need further enquiry.
A property's planning history is split across three systems, and the one most people search only goes back as far as that council happened to computerise. Here is where each record lives, what it costs to get the older ones, and what an empty search result does and does not prove.
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data is the most reliable sold-price record in England and Wales — and it is routinely misread. Here is what is missing, what is excluded, why your neighbour's sale has not appeared, and how to check a figure before you rely on it.
A ceiling price is a rough market benchmark drawn from relevant comparable sales. It can inform a renovation budget, but it is not a fixed cap on what a home can sell for.
Every registered sale in England and Wales is public record — and checking it is free. Here's exactly how to look up any sold price, why it can take six months to appear, and how to read the number like a valuer.
Around 6.3 million properties in England sit in areas at risk of flooding, and most of that risk never shows on a portal listing. Here's how to check any property step by step using free official tools — and what the result means for your insurance, mortgage and offer.
Understand what an EPC measures, how to use its recommendations and which rental rules apply now. The redesigned certificate is planned for the second half of 2027.
We measured Ofcom's Connected Nations fixed-broadband file postcode by postcode instead of premises by premises. 274,750 UK postcodes — 15.8% — still have no gigabit-capable network at all, and the gap between Perth and Hull is 55 percentage points.
Put your research into practice
Explore available records for a home in England or Wales, then use what you find to prepare your next questions.
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