Wessex Searches

What Wessex Searches does

Wessex Searches is the official producer of CON29DW Residential and CON29DW Commercial drainage and water enquiries for property conveyancing in the Wessex Water, Bristol Water, and Bournemouth Water regions of south-west England. The firm serves solicitors, licensed conveyancers, and law firms conducting residential and commercial property transactions, providing official Law Society-endorsed search reports backed by £10m liability cover, with a target turnaround of two working days. Its core products (priced at £66.28 for residential and £248.06 for commercial, inclusive of VAT) are statutory monopoly outputs within its franchised geography, supplemented by a broad catalogue of third-party products resold from Groundsure, Landmark, Future Climate Info, Terrafirma, The Coal Authority, DevAssist, and Verify 365.

The company operates a web-based ordering platform (launched June 2025) with online account management, postcode/title/UPRN-based mapping, order tracking, live hazard alerts, and invoice handling. Distribution is conducted through self-serve online ordering, direct B2B account relationships, NLIS channel partnership (covering ~40% of the Official Searches market across 339 Local Authorities), industry events such as the Bristol Law Society Conference, and a £50-per-referral program targeting conveyancing networks.

Wessex Searches is a trading name of Wessex Water Enterprises Limited, itself a subsidiary of Wessex Water Limited, the regional water and sewerage company serving 2.8 million customers in south-west England. Revenue is generated entirely through per-transaction fees (no subscription fees) with weekly, monthly, or daily invoicing options. The company holds DWSN membership, Law Society endorsement, and ICO registration (ZA043152), and operates from its Operations Centre on Claverton Down Road, Bath.

Name

Wessex Searches

Legal name

Wessex Water Enterprises Limited

Website

https://wessexsearches.co.uk

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Wessex Searches is the official producer of CON29DW drainage and water conveyancing searches for the Wessex Water, Bristol Water, and Bournemouth Water regions of south-west England, serving solicitors, conveyancers, and law firms with a statutory monopoly on official water searches in its franchised geography.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bath

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. CON29DW Residential Search Reports: One-time transaction fees for official drainage and water search reports for residential property transactions. Price is £66.28 including VAT for website orders.
2. CON29DW Commercial Search Reports: One-time transaction fees for commercial property drainage and water searches. Price is £248.06 including VAT, covering up to 4 connections.
3. Additional Products and Services: Additional connection searches at £37.48, plus third-party search products (environmental, mining, planning, flood, utilities) with discounts when ordered with CON29DW reports.
4. Third-Party Search Products: Revenue from reselling third-party search products including Landmark, Groundsure, Coal Authority, and other providers, with competitive discounts offered when bundled with CON29DW searches.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Wessex Searches is the official producer of CON29DW Residential and CON29DW Commercial drainage and water enquiries in the Wessex Water, Bristol Water, and Bournemouth Water regions of south-west England. The company supplies Law Society-endorsed property search reports to conveyancers, solicitors, and law firms, complemented by a catalogue of resold third-party searches covering environmental, mining, planning, flood, utilities, and compliance risks. Orders are placed and managed through a dedicated online portal with mapping tools and order tracking.

Product overview

Wessex Searches is a property search provider offering a unified platform for ordering drainage, water, and environmental searches for residential and commercial property transactions. The core products are the CON29DW Residential and CON29DW Commercial official searches, which are the only source of these enquiries in the Wessex Water, Bristol Water and Bournemouth Water regions. These are supplemented by an extensive catalogue of third-party search products including environmental, mining, planning, flood, highways, utilities, and compliance searches from providers such as Groundsure, Landmark, Future Climate Info, Terrafirma, The Coal Authority, and DevAssist. Customers access all searches through a single online ordering platform with account management, order tracking, and invoicing capabilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CON29DW Residential Official Law Society-endorsed drainage and water search enquiry for residential property transactions in the Wessex Water, Bristol Water, and Bournemouth Water areas. Provides essential information about a property's water and drainage services, backed by liability cover of up to £10m.
• CON29DW Commercial Official drainage and water search enquiry for commercial properties in the Wessex region. Mitigates risk for commercial property professionals and includes details for up to four connections. Backed by £10m liability cover.
• Groundsure Environmental Search Products Environmental and ground risk search reports from Groundsure, a leading UK environmental search authority, including Georisk, CON29M, Planning, and Cheshire Salt searches.
• Landmark Property Risk Products Environmental and location-based risk information products from Landmark Information Group for residential and commercial property transactions in England, Wales and Scotland, including environmental, planning, flood, coal, and utilities searches.
• Future Climate Info (FCI) Environmental and Climate Products Environmental and climate-related search reports from Future Climate Info (a Dye & Durham UK brand) including CON29M, Premium Plus CON29M, and planning data products.
• Terrafirma Ground Risk Products Ground risks and liabilities reports from Terrafirma, including CON29M mining reports, Ground Report with expert professional opinion, and TerraSearch Assure certification.
• The Coal Authority CON29M Mining Search Industry-leading coal mining search report from The Coal Authority drawing from a database of over 173,500 mine entries in Britain.
• DevAssist Development Risk Reports Development risk reports from DevAssist including DevAssess, DevAssess Premium, and DevProbate, for identifying planning risks and unexploited development sites.
• Verify 365 Identity Verification and AML Compliance Identity verification and AML compliance platform using biometric and NFC-based checks, facial recognition, and liveness scanning to support law firm client onboarding and KYC/AML obligations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Target completion within 2 working days for all CON29DW searches
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Source for Searches (South West Water)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2015Source for Searches is a South West Water company producing official CON29DW searches in the South West Water region. Bournemouth Water Searches were merged with Source for Searches after Pennon Group purchased Bournemouth Water.
• Bristol WatercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBristol Water supplies clean drinking water to 1.2 million people in Bristol and surrounding areas. Founded over 175 years ago, serving the community with environmental commitment.
• Wessex WatercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent company. Wessex Water is a regional water and sewerage company serving 2.8 million customers across the south west of England, recognized as one of the leading water and sewerage companies in England and Wales.
• Drainage and Water Searches Network (DWSN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry body for CON29DW search producers. Sets standards ensuring high standards of product quality, consumer protection and customer service. Company is a member and complies with DWSN standards.
• Thames Water Property SearchessupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorNational search provider working alongside Wessex Searches offering a wide range of conveyancing searches nationally including official drainage and water searches as part of DWSN.
• Severn Trent SearchessupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorOfficial CON29DW provider for the Midlands region. Established in 2000, providing residential and commercial CON29DWs with fast turnaround and customer service reputation.
• Bristol Law SocietysupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFounded in 1770, the country's longest established law society representing solicitors, barristers, legal executives, and other legal professionals in Bristol and Bath region.
• Devon and Somerset Law SocietysupportingChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorProfessional forum for lawyers in Devon and Somerset (except Plymouth), formed in 1808. Member of County Societies Group and Federation of European Bars.
• GroundsuresupportingTechnology or IntegrationLeading UK environmental search authority providing expert information on land contamination, flooding, and ground stability. Provides high value property-specific risk analysis.
• Landmark Information GroupsupportingTechnology or IntegrationEnvironmental and location-based risk information provider for residential and commercial property sectors in England, Wales and Scotland. Supports legal and conveyancing professionals.
• Dye & Durham UK (Insight & Data)supportingTechnology or IntegrationAward-winning team combining Terrafirma, Future Climate Info, and Lawyer Checker for environmental reports, ground hazards, conveyancing risk, and fraud protection.
• National Land Information Service (NLIS)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorGovernment-approved electronic land and property searches portal providing access to property information from 339 Local Authorities. Accounts for approximately 40% of Official Searches market.
• DevAssistsupportingTechnology or IntegrationDevelopment risk assessment provider with senior professionals experienced in property, planning and development industries. Offers DevAssess and DevProbate reports.
• The Coal AuthoritysupportingTechnology or IntegrationEstablished 1997, protects people and environment from historic coal mining impact. Provides mine entry information, remediation, and mine water heat projects for low carbon heating.
• Verify 365supportingTechnology or IntegrationAward-winning identity verification and AML compliance platform using biometric, NFC, facial recognition, and liveness scanning technology for law firm client onboarding.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Severn Trent Searches: Official CON29DW producer for the Severn Trent region (Midlands), partnership-listed in Wessex Searches' partners. Operates the same water-utility-owned CON29DW search model in a different geographic franchise, making it the closest structural comparable.
• Thames Water Property Searches: Official CON29DW producer for the Thames Water region, named in Wessex Searches' partnerships as a national search provider working alongside them. Identical product/regulatory structure as Wessex Searches, just in a different regional territory.
• Source for Searches (South West Water): CON29DW producer owned by South West Water that absorbed Bournemouth Water Searches after Pennon's acquisition. Operates the same regulated search model in an overlapping/adjacent South West region — explicit sister-company relationship to Wessex Searches.
• Yorkshire Water Property Searches: Water-utility-owned official CON29DW producer for the Yorkshire region. Direct structural twin — same product, same regulatory monopoly model, different regional franchise.
• United Utilities Property Searches: Official CON29DW producer for the United Utilities (North West England) region. Another regulated water-utility search franchise, identical in mandate and product to Wessex Searches.
• Northumbrian Water Property Searches: CON29DW search provider for Northumbrian Water's North East England territory. Same regulatory product/owner structure as Wessex Searches, differing only in geography served.
• Anglian Water Property Searches: Official CON29DW search provider for the Anglian Water region (East of England). Identical regulatory product and ownership model to Wessex Searches.
• SearchFlow: National UK conveyancing search portal that aggregates CON29DW, environmental, drainage, and Local Authority searches from multiple providers — overlapping with Wessex Searches on transactional property search delivery at a national scale.

Broad incumbents

• Dye & Durham: Listed acquirer/aggregator of UK property search and conveyancing technology (Insight & Data), explicitly partnered with Wessex Searches for environmental and ground-risk reports. Larger, multi-product incumbent competing for the same law-firm wallet.
• Landmark Information Group: Established UK provider of environmental, planning, flood, coal, and utilities search reports — also a third-party reseller via Wessex's platform. Broader multi-product portfolio and competes directly with Wessex on the bundled third-party search products.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/wessexsearches
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wessex-searches

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wessex Searches