Local authorities are not obliged to provide free access to raw property information, the High Court has ruled.

The decision follows a judicial review action by search company OneSearch Direct, challenging York City Council’s refusal to allow access to its property records so that it could obtain search information for home information packs.

The council operates a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution, using a computerised system with property information held in a refined format, which can be purchased for a fee. It no longer allows free access for people to inspect unrefined data.

The High Court said there was nothing unlawful in the operation of this policy. In doing so, it reached a different conclusion to the recent decision of the Information Tribunal, reported in last week’s issue (see [2010] Gazette, 25 March, 3), which ruled that East Riding of Yorkshire Council should have allowed a personal search company free access to inspect raw property data.

The court heard that of approximately 370 local authorities in England and Wales, two-thirds provide full access to property information and one-third do not.

In reaching his decision, Mr Justice Hickinbottom stressed that the ruling was decided only on the issues before him, in a case where the council charged on a cost recovery-only basis.

He said if other councils made charges that included a ‘significant profit element’ or in a manner that showed ‘an improper use of their monopolistic position’ in respect of raw data, it might result in a different decision.

David Kempster, marketing director at MDA SearchFlow, said: ‘Private search companies could continue to fight this local authority by local authority, which could take a long time.

‘The future of searches will be based on who can package and deliver effectively the interpreted data from the local authority, rather than risking transcribing partial, incomplete or uninterpreted data that could leave conveyancers exposed in the transaction,’ he said.

Ronnie Park, managing director of OneSearch Direct, said: ‘The court’s decision not to denounce York council’s anti-competitive behaviour towards private search companies, despite our frequent requests to create a level playing field for the industry, is disappointing in the extreme. For too long a postcode lottery has existed in the UK, creating a huge disparity inthe quality and time taken for vital information to be accessed by search companies, and for that reason we are now considering an appeal to this decision.

‘With this case, we expected to kick start an improved attitude from councils towards the property search industry, which would be in line with the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) report on the issue in 2004.Fortunately, some 70% of local authorities currently comply with the OFT recommendations for best practice and we continue to work closely and successfully withthem.

'However, it seems that York council has found a loophole in the statutory instrument (SI) laid down by the government, enabling them to create a monopoly which cannot benefit the home-buying process and the local York community they serve. The SI is now to be passed back to the Department of Communities and Local Government, where we will hope to see improvements in the wording of the SI.’