Following on from a cyber attack which disrupted their systems, Hackney Council have released a statement offering partial land searches.
This isn’t great news for those who rely on the Local Authority for searches to get their transaction through before the stamp duty land tax deadline on 31 March 2021.
The statement on the Hackney Council website says:
“Unfortunately, following a cyberattack on the Council’s systems, we are not currently able to process land searches. The cyber-attack that has affected the land charges processing system and many other council systems.
“This was an advanced, criminal cyber-attack that has affected a large number of Council services. In cooperation with the National Cyber Security Centre and National Crime Agency, we are working hard to recover systems needed to operate Council services, including land searches.
“This may mean that we will be able to provide a partial land search service in the coming weeks, but we are not expecting to be able to carry out full land searches for some time and cannot currently provide a timeframe for that.
“We are extremely sorry for any delays to your property purchases, which we understand are likely to cause worry.
“If you need to proceed with a house sale, we advise speaking to your lender or mortgage broker about taking out indemnity insurance. If you have already submitted a land search application, we will refund the cost of the application.
“We are working as fast as we can to ensure that services are recovered as quickly as possible, and will continue to update applicants if there are further changes.”
Have you experienced any delays with any other local authorities?
