Local property searches are taking up to six weeks – and posing a serious threat to sales.

Searches by Exeter City Council were taking five working days until a month ago, but are now taking far longer.

Roger Wilkinson, managing director of Wilkinson Grant & Co, said: “I am not finger-pointing, and I do have some sympathy with the council, but I am stating this as a matter of fact.

“The situation is one of resources. The council apparently has one diligent member of staff working overtime – but against a rising mountain of backlogs.

“This will have a serious effect with people needing to move this summer to get their children into schools for the start of the new year.”

He said that the problem seems to be unique to Exeter, with searches at neighbouring authorities taking the usual time.

He added: “I have been an agent for 35 years, and not in recent memory can I recall searches having taken this long.

“If the delays increase to beyond 12 weeks, it will present more problems because some mortgage offers only last 90 days.”

Exeter City Council has admitted the backlog could take weeks to clear.

Richard Short, the council’s assistant director of city development, said: “A restructure of City Development, that includes the Land Charges function, was implemented in May.

“We now handle searches in a different way. Two Land Charges staff did take the reorganisation as an opportunity to take early retirement.

“There has been an increase in searches and the changeover is taking time to settle, so searches are taking longer than they did earlier in the year.

“I have arranged additional resources to deal with the backlog. However, it may take a few weeks to clear it since the new staff need training and accuracy of responses is vital.”