Account deleted by request

Great news in my opinion




Subject: EGi News Flash: Govt admits defeat in battle to include HCRs in HIPs


The most contentious part of the Home Information Pack (HIP), the Home Condition Report (HCR), is to be scrapped.
The decision puts a question mark over the future of thousands of Home Inspectors who would carry out the HCR, a type of property survey, as of next year.
In a statement to Parliament today, local government minister Yvette Cooper said that the HCR is no longer going to be a mandatory requirement when the pack is introduced in June 2007.
Instead it will be up to home sellers whether to include one in the pack or not.
The pack will now simply comprise Searches and an Energy Efficiency report.
The minister also said she was considering removing the need to wait 14 days before marketing a property, while the HIP is prepared.
Head of SPLINTA (Sellers Pack Law is Not the Answer), Nick Salmon, said:
"The minister, Yvette Cooper, is to be congratulated for her pragmatic approach to the inherent problems of Home Information Packs.
"She has had the courage to grasp a nettle that previous ministers had created.
"We have always said that the government aim of improving the buying process was laudable but that their preferred solution was wide of the mark.
"By removing the main objections to HIP the Minister has opened the way for the property industry to develop far more cost effective improvements."
Philip Davies, Chief Executive of Linden Homes, said: "Finally the government has accepted that the introduction of HCRs on a mandatory basis next June would have crippled the housing market and led to a shortage of supply, fuelling an increase in selling prices.
"There is little benefit in transferring the expense of the legal searches from the buyer to the seller, so the government should simply get on with introducing the Energy Performance Certificate under the European Directive and consign the rest of the HIP fiasco to the scrap heap."


chop

Mark Miwurdz

Good - another ill-thought out New Labia piece of bull**** bites the dust.

Torpedo ID cards next and I'll be a happy man.

Cheers
Kav

lozgti

Excellent.People who have trained/are training to be inspectors had to pay about £8k up front though.

What a rip off and what a stupid suggestion HIP's were/are .

KiwiGTI

There are a great idea, work very well in Australia and would cut down on a lot of nonsense in the UK housing market including gazumping.

The thing against this is the greed of the sellers.

richardg

a (contractor) colleague of mine was going to move into HCR work when the scheme he is working on completes later this year. looks like he's going to have to have a rethink

Gordo

haha - although I thought the announcement was that the survey bit had been delayed but would be introduced later?

Kiwi - how would they stop gazumping?



Gordo

Account deleted by request

This process would not stop gazumping in any way kiwi , just because buyers would get to see searches, home inspection report and energy rating up front the rest of the process remained exactly the same as before. This one one of the reasons the whole HIPs business was a complete waste of time.

I feel very sorry for many companies who will have lost a fortune over this saga, Rightmove for example puts the cost of its HIPS investment so far into "tens of millions".

Another Labour cockup and more good press for the torries

chop

unclebuck

Because a house sale would be completed in days rather than weeks or months as currently is the case.

This was actually a very good idea. Clearly too good for the idiots known as 'New Labour'.

Gordo

Not sure it would speed the process up - I for one would still want my own survey doing and would want my lawyer doing the land searches etc (they are not pure commodity, you often have to know the right questions to ask).

Reducing or eliminating stamp duty would be a better way to free the market up!

Gordo

lozgti

But chains are always a problem.Also,if someone came and offered me £50k more for my house I'd be tempted

Account deleted by request

Absolute rubbish in my opinion ub,

the home inspection report would not satisfy building society's or lenders so the purchaser would still have to apply for their mortgage and have a survey done. Personal searches can be returned in 3 days so there is no delay there and contract paper work can be done in 2/3 days by a solicitor, it is normally there lazing around that delays the process.

I can tell from working everyday in the industry that the biggest delay in house purchases is the mortgage application and survey side, HIPS would not have changed this process one bit.

As far as the joke idea of trusting someone elses survey or home inspection report, would you spend half a million on a 150 year old property trusting a survey commisioned by the owners? Not in a million years would I.

chop

Chrisgr31

Rightmove must be the only people then who have trained anyone to HIPs standard as I understood the number of qualified inspectors nationwide could damn nearly be counted on the fingers of one hand! I might exagerate but I seem to recall they anticipated less than 1,000 people would have been qualified by the kick-off

unclebuck

A mortgage valuation report? They are completed in about 15 mins by a surveyor and are far less detailed than a HCR, yet lenders prefer to rely on those? Go figure. It's because they want to lend the money and don't want to find any reasons not to.

Exactly, so that delay is eliminated because the work is done once upfront for all potential buyers to see. A good deal for all. No wonder the industry doesn't like that. The more duplicate searches and surveys that get done at buyers' expense, the more cash they can rake in.

Why ever not? They would be carried out by industry accredited inspectors many of which would be exactly the same people you would use at your expense to commission your own survey. What's the difference except you don't pay for it - the vendor does. Great!! Surely you're not suggesting there would be collusion between the two to fabricate a false survey?!?

As a buyer you get all that upfront at no cost and your still not satisfied? Fine, then commission your own report to put your mind at ease. On the type of property you use as an example then you would probably commission a full structural survey anyway which would be far more comprehensive then an HCR or standard property survey, so your example does not apply. For the bulk of 'average' property transactions the information in an HCR is more than adequate.

Shark Man

It's like those "AA checks" or Hpi for cars. Would you buy a car based on that? I wouldn't. As for the collusion between the surveyor and the vendor, well we all know that in every other industry it's possibily to lubricate the wheels with a little perk in the back pocket.....just ask Labour's fund raisers

Account deleted by request

Well unlike some on this board I believe you are entitled to your opinion and i'm going to try and change it. I have an opinion from working inside the industry and I know what goes on thats why my opinion will not change.

I would never trust someone elses survey and yes I do believe that collusion is possible and very easy to organise, from what I do if I was so inclined I could very easily get a surveyor to 'go easy' on one of mine or my clients properties. Maybe not outright lies (even though that would not be a problem) but using the right words could indicate problems to be less serious than they are.

My example does apply, a property at 150 years old would either have a Home Buyers Report or Full Structural Survey, the big issue with Home Condition Report is they are barely more than a Valuation Report, certainly not to the levels of a Home Buyers Report, if it was I would be more in favour of the HIPS idea.

Good luck to anyone who trusts someone eles survey, don't blame me when your house falls down though

chop

Shark Man

"is that 1/2" crack running along the entire gable end of the property serious?"

"Oh no no no...it's historic, it's only been there for the past month"

Account deleted by request

Absolutely, seen that a few times over the years.

chop

unclebuck

Well that's not true either. An HCR is barely any different from a Home Buyers Report in terms of detail - it's just presented in a more 'generic' format to make it easier for anyone to understand.

But you've illustrated my point perfectly. There is a lot of dodgy practise that goes of in the property market that HIPs would go a long way towards eliminating. That why they so called 'professionals' are so opposed to it as would see an end to all their little scams.

Thanks for the warning anyway. I know who I won't be buying anything from in the future.

Account deleted by request

I think the number of inspectors who have paid and started the course runs into thousands.

People like rightmove have lost money because of this as they and many other large firms would be providing the whole 'package', I have been to several meetings with their representatives, they have already set up whole new offices, departments employed staff etc etc etc.

They must be pig sick.

chop

Account deleted by request

Your missing a big point unclebuck, one of the main reasons people championed HIPS (by this I mean the likes of Tony Blair and the other monkeys who started this whole process) was it would eliminate the need for the buyer to have a survey. if that had been the case i would have more than likely been in favour of this. A home condition report firstly does not meet the standard of survey to satisfy building societies (although as you rightly say they are pretty close, this is a major problem though) whereas a HBR does, secondly they will not accept a survey that has been produced for anyone but their client.

Yes dodgy practices do go on in any business but I really don't see your point of how HIPS will stop this happening

By the way I have a example HIPS pack sat on my desk in front of me now (government produced), it is 92 pages long and full of basically useless information bar 2/3 pages worth of text. I'm really not convinced that people would have taken any note of them.

I'm opposed to HIPS because I believe the idea is flawed and needs a re-think not because it will affect my supposed "scams".

chop

lozgti

Think most Estate Agents would have thought they had it all.Pushing clients to solicitors they have ties with,those solicitors all paying the agent a cut for the referral.

The Agent gets their normal fee plus;something for doing the pack (if thats what they were going to do) and something from the solicitor for passing the work on.

I think they would have benefited most,not sellers or buyers

richardg

and by next month you should be able to park your bike in it

richardg

true, but you should find that the benefit of the report can be assigned. some surveyors will charge for this (due to the increased liability issue - not that this applies in monetary terms, just as a "risk of recourse"). i would generally agree with most of what you're saying chopper.

am sure you're right. contractors don't read my 20 odd page specifications as it is - they expect to be able to phone me 4/5 times a day with silly questions

Account deleted by request

Thats a fair point, they may charge a reduced fee to put the survey into someone eles name. They will have to reinspect the property though as their insurance will not cover them if they haven't been back.

Then you have the problem of the surveyor who did the report not being on the panel of surveyors for the purchasers mortgage company and they won't accept the report

Just a nightmare all round, very pleasaed they have knocked it on the head.

chop