Coal Authority mining search UK 2026 — the CON29M explained

Written and reviewed by the South Yorkshire Property Buyers team (a trading name of Bullseye Properties Ltd, company 14869608, previously Lord CNB Properties Ltd until 18 April 2024). Published 25 May 2026 · Last reviewed: 2 June 2026.

What the CON29M actually is

The CON29M Residential is the only coal mining search endorsed by the Law Society and accepted by every UK mortgage lender, the Building Societies Association and UK Finance. It is produced from the official coal reporting dataset held by the Mining Remediation Authority — the public body that took over the Coal Authority's name and statutory functions on 22 May 2024 under the Mining Remediation Authority (Change of Name) Order 2024. The headquarters at 200 Lichfield Lane, Mansfield NG18 4RG and the statutory remit under the Coal Industry Act 1994 are unchanged — only the name on the door.

For a residential transaction, the conveyancer orders the CON29M alongside the local authority CON29 and water/drainage CON29DW searches. The report runs to between four and twelve pages depending on what the dataset returns, and answers a fixed list of questions set by the Law Society's Conveyancing Protocol.

What appears on a CON29M

The CON29M is not a free-form report — it answers eleven set questions about the property. The headline items every buyer's solicitor will look at are:

• Past underground workings. Any recorded coal seams worked beneath the property, the depth, the seam name, and the year of working. Many seams in South Yorkshire were worked between the 1840s and the 1980s.
• Present underground workings. Active mining is now essentially nil in the UK following the closure of Kellingley Colliery in December 2015, but the search still confirms there are no current licences.
• Proposed underground workings. Any planned future coal mining or related operations within 200m.
• Shallow workings. Workings within 30m of the surface — the depth band where ground movement risk is highest and where lenders react most sharply.
• Mine entries. Shafts, adits, drifts and air vents within 20m of the property boundary. South Yorkshire has thousands of unrecorded entries from the 19th century alongside the modern mapped ones.
• Coal mining geology. Geological features that influence ground movement — fault zones, fissures and outcrop lines.
• Subsidence damage. Any claim for damage notified to the Authority under the Coal Mining Subsidence Act 1991, whether the claim was accepted, refused or remains open.
• Mine gas. Recorded mine gas emission events at or near the property.
• Surface mining. Past, present and proposed opencast workings within 200m, with the highest weighting given to operations in the last 50 years.
• Withdrawal of support. Whether the rights to withdraw vertical support have ever been exercised at the property.
• Coal mining hazard. A summary of any other hazards the Mining Remediation Authority considers material — fly ash, spoil heaps, contaminated water and similar.

What it costs in 2026

The current price list for the Mining Remediation Authority's residential reports (published on its gov.uk page) is:

• CON29M Residential — £35.10 (the only mortgage-lender-accepted residential report).
• Coal Mining Brine Subsidence Report (Cheshire only) — extra charge, irrelevant in South Yorkshire.
• Ground Hazards Report — bundled extra, £30–£45 depending on the bundle.

On a typical South Yorkshire completion statement, the CON29M appears as £40–£55 once the conveyancer's admin charge and VAT on that admin element are added. The search is non-refundable once ordered, which is why most solicitors only instruct it after the contract pack is agreed.

How long it takes

The Mining Remediation Authority publishes a 5 working day service standard. In practice the report is generated from a digital dataset and most are returned within 24 to 48 hours of being ordered through the online portal. There is no premium-rate fast-track product — the standard fee includes the 5-day target.

This makes the CON29M one of the quicker searches in a conveyancing pack. The slow item is almost always the local authority search (CON29 + LLC1) which in 2026 still takes 10 to 25 working days across South Yorkshire local authorities. So waiting for the CON29M itself is rarely the bottleneck — what holds up a sale is what the search says.

South Yorkshire and the Development High Risk Areas

The whole of the former Yorkshire coalfield falls within the Mining Remediation Authority's reporting area. But the Development High Risk Area (DHRA) designation — the trigger for the more detailed answers on a CON29M — covers a much larger proportion of South Yorkshire than most homeowners realise. Based on the Authority's published interactive map viewer:

Local authority	Approx % of land in DHRA	Lender risk profile
Barnsley	~80%	High — shallow workings widespread
Rotherham	~75%	High — multiple recorded mine entries
Doncaster	~60%	Medium-high — deeper seams but extensive history
Sheffield	~25–30%	Medium — concentrated in east and north of city
Chesterfield	~70%	High — adjoins North Derbyshire coalfield

For practical purposes, if you are selling in Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster or the eastern half of Sheffield (S2, S4, S5, S9, S12, S13, S20, S35, S36), assume the CON29M will return material entries and plan accordingly.

Why mortgage lenders pull out

Mortgage lenders do not make decisions on the CON29M itself. They use it as one of several risk inputs assessed by their valuation surveyor or by a panel automated valuation model (AVM) provider — Hometrack and e.surv being the dominant players in 2026. What triggers a refusal, downvaluation or mortgage retention is:

• Recorded shallow workings beneath the dwelling footprint. Workings less than 30m below the surface are the highest-risk band. Many high-street lenders will decline outright on terraces in Barnsley or Mexborough where multiple seams have been worked at 8m–20m depth.
• Mine entries within 20m of the boundary. A shaft or air vent close to a property is treated as a category-A risk because of localised collapse potential.
• Subsidence claim history. A previous claim — even a settled one — flags the property as having had documented movement. Some lenders will lend with a higher rate; others will refuse.
• "Mining hazard" returned on question 11. Anything in the catch-all hazard answer (mine gas, fly ash, spoil heaps) triggers manual underwriting and often a refusal.

The result is that the conveyancer receives the CON29M, sends it to the buyer's solicitor, the buyer's solicitor sends it to the lender, and 48 hours later the mortgage offer is withdrawn. This is the single most common reason chains collapse in former South Yorkshire pit villages — and it is one of the reasons our companion guide on selling a house in poor condition exists.

"We see the same pattern every month — sale agreed, search ordered, search returns shallow workings, lender pulls funding, chain collapses. The seller is back to square one through no fault of their own."

The cash buyer route

A genuine cash buyer is not making the purchase with borrowed money, so a mortgage lender's view of the CON29M is irrelevant. The cash buyer's solicitor still orders the search — for due diligence and because Law Society conveyancing protocol requires it — but the result becomes a pricing input rather than a deal-breaker.

This is why properties that have been stuck on the open market for months due to mining-related survey issues often complete within days when sold to a professional cash buyer like South Yorkshire Property Buyers. The trade-off is the same as on any cash sale — typically 80–85% of full market value — but that needs to be weighed against the alternative of holding the property indefinitely while every buyer with a mortgage application drops out at the same stage.

Misconceptions about the new name

Some homeowners and even some estate agents still talk about "Coal Authority searches" and worry that the renaming on 22 May 2024 has changed the rules. It has not. The legal name and rebrand changed, but:

• The CON29M product is unchanged in scope and price.
• Old reports issued under the Coal Authority name remain fully valid — solicitors and lenders accept them.
• Existing subsidence claims under the Coal Mining Subsidence Act 1991 transfer to the Mining Remediation Authority without any action by the householder.
• The headquarters, contact phone number and online ordering portal are unchanged.
• The Authority's statutory powers and duties under the Coal Industry Act 1994 transfer in full.

The rationale for the rename, set out in the official announcement, was that the Authority's remit now extends well beyond coal — into metal mine water treatment, tin, lead, gold and historic chemical works. Calling it the "Coal Authority" had become misleading.

Practical seller checklist

1. Order your own CON29M before you list. £35.10 is cheap insurance. You find out what a buyer's lender will see and avoid being blindsided four months in.
2. Disclose honestly on the TA6. The 2024 edition of the Property Information Form (TA6) requires sellers to disclose known issues — see our piece on TA6 disclosure after Patarkatsishvili v Woodward Fisher [2025] for why this matters legally.
3. Ask your agent if they have a "subject to mining survey" list. A good agent will know which buyers' lenders are more accommodating on coalfield stock.
4. Get a second opinion if you are downvalued. AVMs are blunt instruments. A drive-by RICS valuation sometimes reverses an automated downvaluation.
5. Know your fallback. If the conventional chain keeps collapsing, a cash buyer is the safety net — see our guide to cash buyer vs auction.

Coal Authority mining search FAQs