Geri Cloak is probably not alone when she says: “I did not know what ‘Article 4 Direction’ meant” writes Ben Bentley.

What she did know was that she was delighted with her new Shropshire home, until she discovered many moons ago there were changes to her property she was not allowed to make.

“I wanted to put nice new plastic windows in but I had to put in real wooden ones because it was in a conservation area,” she adds.

“In conservation areas, of which there are quite a few in Shropshire, you can’t just go ahead and change the exterior look of the property.”

Land charge searches is a service everyone needs if they’re moving house, but probably an area not many people know much about.

How many househunters find a dream home, fall in love with it, only to find after they have bought it that a road is about to be built at the bottom of the garden, flats are set to be constructed next door and that your only friends in the world are a bunch of Great Crested Newts?

Geri Cloak and Tina Chadd review plans

If property development programmes on daytime television are to believed, houses, which are everyone’s biggest single investment, can be snapped up and transformed into fairytale castles in the time it takes you to say Homes Under The Hammer.

As an assistant land search officer for Shropshire Council, Geri Cloak is part of a small team that has 67 years experience in searches and in the last 12 months has received almost 8,000 search applications.

Where most councils take 10 days to return searches, under the unitary authority’s newly computerised system, Shropshire does it in just 3.7 days, providing a boost to the county’s housebuyers by completing land charge searches in a time well below the national target.

A local land charge search is submitted to the council by a solicitor or estate agent on behalf of someone interested in buying a house or piece of land.

And it’s vital because for just £75 – the same price as it was in 1998 actually – it will identify any possible restrictions or issues affecting the property or land, for example, whether trees at the property are protected and can’t be chopped or lopped down; whether the property is in a conservation area and therefore subject to restrictions; whether a public right of way passes through the land, or whether there are any planning or building regulations applications that may be of concern.

A standard search, however, will only reveal issues within the boundaries of the property concerned and will show problems that might arise on surrounding or neighbouring land.

At the team’s Shire Hall office where land searches are conducted, Tina Chadd, local land charges assistant, adds: “The number of people who contact us because they have bought a property and six months later diggers come into at the rear of your garden. You’ve had your search back but there’s not a lot you can do about it.”

Surrounding land is dealt with by an extra search, which costs just £25 but can save buyers thousands of pounds and more than a little heartache.

A standard search will unearth planning applications and their history.

“You want to know that the building regulations have been completed and signed off. You want to know if your lovely old oak tree is protected, because if you go and cut off a branch you could be prosecuted,” says Tina.

“You need to know if the property is listed because it could mean there are restrictions on what you can do with it.”

The team’s searches also reveal smoke contamination issues, whether the owner of a property can have an open fire or a bonfire in their area, with restrictions in place in ‘clean air’ areas.

They also tell potential buyers if planning permission has been granted for existing extensions or whether any enforcement notices are served upon them.

There are plenty of unusual revellations too. One that has cropped up for the team on a number of occasions is the issue of storing caravans at the bottom of the garden. In fact, owners need planning consent to keep the accommodation of their summer holiday at the back of their properties.

“People think the can buy a caravan and put it at the bottom of the garden,” continues Tina. “If it is parked on the drive there might be a problem with views, maybe, but stored on a field it’s different. You need planning permission. And if you start to use it as an extra bedroom there could be enforcements on it.”

Another area that the land search team increasingly finds is the presence of trees with preservation orders.

“People are more aware of their environment,” explains Tina. “Twenty years ago there were not as many conservation areas but today we are looking after our heritage.”

Searches identify public rights of way, often the subject of spats between land owners and walkers in the countryside. But if you spot a bunch of ramblers wandering around the garden of your new home it might mean they are more aware of their rights than you.

On the other hand the search may reveal that what the public believes is a right of way is no such thing at all.

Says Tina: “There might have been a path to a railway that has been used for years and it can be just closed. Even if it has been used for 20 years you cannot assume a right of way.”

Being a largely rural county poses other land issues. Tina recalls cases of several scrap yards springing up on farmland in south Shropshire.

“There were a number of these sites which were illegal,” she says. “It starts with a couple of old tractors and then it starts growing. The searches are all about finding out about your property and the surrounding areas.”

They also reveal areas including registered landfill, particularly important for properties built in Shropshire over the last 30 years, and contaminated land, identifying levels of radioactive materials such as Radon which can be found in certain parts of south Shropshire and Powys.

And if your potential new home is constructed on a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the land may well be protected – and not least from yourself.

“If your building has land running down to a river which is in such an area you cannot dig up the reeds and just put in a landing,” says Tina.

For more information about land searches in Shropshire visit www.shropshire.gov.uk/environment.nsf