The Valio council knowledge base

Every council. Already figured out.

Valio carries years of accumulated knowledge about every local authority in England and Wales — submission mailboxes, requirements, quirks, fast-track rules — so your team doesn't start from scratch every time.

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New order · property lookup

PR1 2HESearch
12 Fishergate, Preston
14 Fishergate, Preston UPRN matched
16 Fishergate, Preston

Council

Preston City Council

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Every firm has this file

Every search firm has a version of this file.

Maybe it's a spreadsheet. Maybe it's a shared doc someone started three years ago and hasn't updated since. Maybe it lives entirely in one person's head.

It lists the mailboxes that actually work. The ones that need a specific subject line. The ones that charge differently for commercial searches. The fast-track contacts. The ones that take three weeks in August. That knowledge is hard-won. And when the person who holds it leaves, it walks out the door with them.

We built Valio's council master database from the ground up — in collaboration with an operator who had already spent decades mapping these councils firsthand. When you open an order, that knowledge is already there.

Rossendale requires the admin ward in every search request, or the request is rejected. Valio handles this automatically. There are hundreds of requirements like this across England and Wales. We know them all.

What's in the knowledge base

Nine layers of council intelligence, per authority.

Submission mailboxes

The right address for search orders, fee notifications, responses, and FOI requests.

Fast-track configuration

Whether fast-track is available, SLA in business days, and the dedicated assignee.

Processing notes

Rich-text operational notes shown to your ops team during fulfilment.

Fee structures

Council-specific fees integrated directly into your pricing matrix.

Special rules

Manual lodgement flags, electronic order requirements, HMLR LLC1 routing.

Prep work answers

Council-specific pre-filled answers for local authority search reports.

Regional context

County, region, LLPG custodian codes, and aliases.

Contact hierarchy

Search, fees, response, FOI, and general contacts — all kept separate.

Appointment tracking

For councils that require an appointment before accepting a request.

01

Do a council you've never done before — confidently.

The knowledge is already there. Submission contacts, processing notes, known quirks. Your team isn't starting from nothing.

02

Stop losing institutional knowledge when people move on.

When everything lives in the system, it stays in the system. A new team member has the same knowledge base as someone who's been doing this for ten years.

03

Catch the gaps before they become problems.

The pricing matrix shows which councils are priced and which aren't. The data-issues filter flags missing council assignments before orders go live.

Connected to the source

Plugged into the systems search runs on.

Valio talks directly to the authoritative data sources and providers your work depends on — so the right data flows in, and orders go out in the format each system expects.

  • HM Land RegistryINSPIRE boundaries
  • Ordnance SurveyBase map tiles
  • LandmarkSearch provider
  • MartelloSearch provider
  • VeriphyIdentity & AML
  • postcodes.ioPostcode lookup
  • UKHSARadon risk data
  • Companies HouseCompany checks
  • Microsoft 365Outbound email
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