Daily Telegraph
Quote:
House selling packs 'to cost £1,000'
By George Jones and Rosie Murray-West
(Filed: 17/06/2006)
The Government's planned home information packs, which it claims will speed up housing transactions and stop money being wasted on surveys, were condemned last night as "expensive, deficient and dangerous".
Home information packs will not need to include information on flood risk or land contamination
The pack, which it is estimated will cost the vendor as much as £1,000, will be compulsory for anyone selling a home after June 1 next year.
If the home is off the market for more than 28 days, the pack will have to be updated, involving more expense.
The scheme's opponents also fear that some people could face bills of many thousands of pounds if they try to sell property without a pack, or HIP.
There will be a fine of £200 a day for any property that is on the market without one, even if it is advertised on a private website or simply by a board in the garden. A Law Society survey last month showed that most people had never heard of the packs.
They will contain a mini survey, called a home condition report, searches and a report detailing the energy efficiency of the building.
However, Nick Salmon, a London estate agent who runs the anti-HIP pressure group Splinta, said that most buyers would still commission their own survey.
"A home condition report paid for by the seller raises conflict of interest issues," he said. "In Denmark, where they have had the packs for 10 years, 80 per cent of buyers have their own survey done."
The Government slipped out details this week of what would be in the packs. It emerged that they would not need to include information on flood risk, natural subsidence, radon gas or land contamination, leading to fears that many people would either not trust the packs or be left without vital knowledge about their prospective homes.
Mr Salmon said there were also fears that there would not be enough inspectors to carry out the home condition reports, because many people who had registered to do the job had not started training.
The job is expected to be popular with retired people and mothers returning to work but, because details about the packs have been so late in coming, many have delayed starting the courses.
Michael Gove, the Conservative spokesman on housing and planning, said the packs would cost nearly £1,000 for a detached home and £800 for a semi, compared with the Government's original estimate of about £600.
"If a sale falls through, sellers face being charged a second time to produce a new pack," he said. "Buyers will still need to purchase additional valuations, especially if, like most first-time buyers, they have a loan-to-value mortgage of 80 per cent or more.
"Their refusal to tell families whether the back gardens will be safe for their children or about potential flood risks delivers a serious blow to the credibility of these so-called information packs. The Government would be better to scrap the scheme than deliver expensive, deficient and dangerous information to potential home-buyers."
Mr Gove's view is shared by many estate agents, who will have to administer the new selling regime.
Jeff Doble, the managing director of Dexters agency, in Teddington, south-west London, said: "I am going to have to put my fees up and I don't like doing that because I don't think this is giving my clients value for money.
"You would be hard pushed to find an estate agent who supports the packs. The Government has not listened to any of the committed people in this industry."
The home condition report section of the pack will expire after six months. If a property is taken off the market for more than 28 days and is then placed back on the market, the pack creation process must start again.
Documents, including searches, cannot be more than three months old when they are created at this "first point of marketing", requiring the seller to pay for a new or updated pack.
The Government has also admitted that the home condition report is likely to replace valuation surveys in only about half of sales in the early stages. Critics say that is a gross underestimation.
If the loan-to-value ratio exceeds 80 per cent - around 40 per cent of cases in which a mortgage is required - a separate valuation is still likely to be required. That would mean most first-time buyers still having to pay for valuations.
They're doing with houses what they are doing with cars, they know people cannot do without cars, houses, so lets use them to clobber people.
Quote:
If the home is off the market for more than 28 days, the pack will have to be updated, involving more expense.
What could possibly have changed in a month to make that much difference?
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