About us

Our company was formed in 1999 to provide a service to solicitors which included the provision of conveyancing searches throughout England and Wales. These were mainly personal searches of the local authority records.

In those days the majority of conveyancers and solicitors purchased their searches directly from the councils. This was a laborious, confusing and time consuming task with over three hundred and fifty separate councils, all with differing systems and prices which is why our service was so popular.

However there was still a call for council searches and we were happy to provide these for our clients together with our own regulated searches. The Government recognised the shortcomings of the Local Authority produced searches and the confusion experienced by conveyancers and solicitors. Many of the councils were reluctant to develop their online ordering and delivery systems so in the early 2000's a new system was developed to centralise the ordering, delivery and payment for local authority searches. It would have a central Hub for ordering and several Spokes of private companies competing to provide a service. It would be known as NLIS.

The councils would be encouraged to develop their IT to receive and deliver orders for searches. However this proved to be cumbersome, costly and due to the slow take up by local authorities not much of an improvement. Councils were still posting hard copies to the end users. In February of 2003 we decided that we could do better so NLIS Ltd was formed with the intention of providing a fully electronic system for both ordering and delivering Local Authority searches with account facilities for payments. As the conveyancing professionals became hungry for more information further searches and reports were made available such as; Drains and Water, Environmental reports Flood Risk, Coal and mining reports and more. Many conveyancers baulked at the price some councils charged for their searches so we decided to give the option of our own regulated searches governed by the PCCB, the CoPSO code of practise and carrying indemnity insurance. The ability to choose the various reports from one site, pay after thirty days and receive all the reports electronically has proved very popular. We are constantly looking for more reports to add to our menu and encourage our clients to identify further products for us to add. If you are a regular purchaser of any of the items on our product list and would like an account just contact us and we will be delighted to provide a facility.

Conversely if you want to purchase a one off report simply enter the address of the property to find the menu of reports available which can be purchased without an account, online, by credit or debit card.

Please see our terms and conditions.