"Sellers pack"

claz

i agree a lot with what has been said previously regarding both sides of the coin

however, i feel that the current proposed pack will not be much good if lenders won't accept it as a survey

i am a ftb and have moved into my own house 3 weeks ago, i believe that if my OH and i had realised the full condition on the house we would not of purchased it

the ceiling has literally fallen down when taken down polystrene ceiling tiles as it was never nailed into place properly

other problems have occurred and the list is endless, however, if we or even the sellerhad known this from the start then we would of been well prepared for what we were letting ourselves in for but after having to spend £1000 on a full structural survey as requested by the mortgage company any probles it brought up seemed to be irrelevant after the ammount of money we spent

what i'm trying to say without going on too much is the government should be looking at how to help first time buyers get onto the market eg. waiving stamp duty fee for FTB up to a certain price eg £200,000

this certainly was a major factor when my partner an di were buying, but if its any consolation when we come to sell in a few years time at least we know we will make money, same size house down the road just modern decor has just gone on the market for £60,000 more than we bought ours for so even if we break even after improvements thats all that matters to me

Old_No.7

I think this is a very useful discussion, and with so much knowledge around, we should think about what could we suggest to get in place instead of the HIPs? I've looked at some houses recently as a FTB (not really first time, but am renting currently, so for mortgage purposes etc I am considered a FTB) - I was really interested in one that would need quite a bit of work, but when the estate agent said several people had been round with builders for quotes (yet hadn't put in an offer), obviously I'm now very wary of it! I would pay to see what any surveys or builders have said, but all that knowledge is lost: only the (now no longer interested) potential buyers know. This is a waste of everyone's time, such a precious resource for us all: in that sense I'm hoping the HIPs will at least provide some basic information, even if it's just a starting point: you can always do your own survey after that. Sure, I wouldn't like to pay £800 for it (although that's very little if you consider what people can make on a house), but as a potential buyer I'd put £100 towards seeing that information...

sm9ai

Looking at this thread.

It seems that HIP's are a great idea thats going to be poorly implemented.

Does that sound about right?

[Deleted User]

sm9ai wrote:

Looking at this thread.

It seems that HIP's are a great idea thats going to be poorly implemented.

Does that sound about right?

No - HIPs is a very bad idea which will jeopardise the property market. The arguments against it far out weigh any arguments in its favour. It will achive nothing positive to help ftb or protect anyone's interests who is considering buying a property. All it will do is increase property prices so that sellers will re-coup some of the expense in selling. And ftb will lose out- they may save on not having to pay for a survey or legal searches (allegedly-but potentially a big risk), but pay extra on the price.

As for poorly implemented, I totally agree - it has not been thought out adequately enough or indeed it's long term effect on the property market.

EdInvestor

I'm not sure that the problem the Hips are supposed to address has been correctly diagnosed.

What exactly is the problem supposed to be, does anyone know?

[Deleted User]

EdInvestor wrote:

I'm not sure that the problem the Hips are supposed to address has been correctly diagnosed.

What exactly is the problem supposed to be, does anyone know?

From the information I have read, the ODPM want HIPs to be implemented to 'expedite' home purchase transactions. It is also supposed to save buyers from spending money on a survey only to find that there are serious faults with the property and therefore losing out. Perhaps the governemnt should consider lowering stamp duty - this would be a more appropriate saving especially for FTBs. That as I understand it, is the purpose of this legislation in a nut shell.

But IMHO, and I am sure many others would agree, I am not convinced that these issues would be alleviated by this proposal.

sheffield_lad

lindabea wrote:

No - HIPs is a very bad idea which will jeopardise the property market. The arguments against it far out weigh any arguments in its favour. It will achive nothing positive to help ftb or protect anyone's interests who is considering buying a property. All it will do is increase property prices so that sellers will re-coup some of the expense in selling. And ftb will lose out- they may save on not having to pay for a survey or legal searches (allegedly-but potentially a big risk), but pay extra on the price. QUOTE]

Sorry but I disagree, OK I am studying to become a house inspector (HI), so I would say that correct but the arguments for changing the way we sell houses are compelling. Firstly I have not seen it mentioned in this thread but a major reason for the HI is the EU directive which means we have to give an energy rating to each property sold (Like when you purchase domestic appliances and they rate them A to G on efficiency), if this survey was stand alone the price has been estimated at around £200. What the government have done is to include this in the home inspection the total home inspection is only estimated at around £350. Secondly the mortgage lenders are already moving to valuing property based on location and prices of other houses sold in the same area instead of a walk around valuation. Given that the HI will have better knowledge of the house wouldn’t they be foolish not to use the information provided? Lastly currently only 1 in 5 buyers have any kind of survey on probably the biggest purchase of their life. The home inspection will give them reassurance to purchase especially FTB's.

PS It's only EA who say the pack will cost £1000 maybe in London that will be the case but the average HIP has been estimated around £600-£750 as an average cost, and as for a "housing disaster" people will always buy and sell houses why would £750 put someone off purchasing an average house now valued at £189,000! Comments welcome on this excellent discussion.

Ian_W

lindabea wrote: I am not convinced that these issues would be alleviated by this proposal.

I'm sure other posters and lurkers have got that message from the strident and, at times, hectoring nature of your posts on this subject. However I'm not one of those who do agree, call me stupid and naive if you wish but I believe HIPs could be a step in the right direction for our current disfunctional system of house buying and selling.

I say "could" because we are 15 months from it going live and things about the scheme may well change before June 07. For example, lenders may well accept the HI reports before then. One thing is sure with the Government committed to it, it's almost certain to be introduced.

Ed asks a very pertinent question as to what evils it is intended to address. Two that readily spring to mind are the length of time between offer and completion, 13 weeks+ in most cases and the number of transactions that break down, about a quarter, during that period with the consequent waste of money for those involved.

To-night with Trevor McDonald covered this subject last month and most of it consisted of the same vested interests both pro and anti trotting out the same arguments. There was one very interesting short interview with an EA who had been part of the Bristol trial and who still offered HIPs voluntarily to sellers after the pilot finished. She said most sellers took them up [and I presume paid for them] and that the breakdown rate had fallen in her agency from a 24% norm to only 1% for those sales with HIPs.

EAs, Lawyers, Lenders etc are never, ever going to represent the interests of buyers & sellers but you should ask yourself. If they don't want HIPs - what constructive alternatives to improve the way houses are bought and sold have these professionals put forward?

Deemy

I think its a good idea, its better for the seller to find out about a serious problem before a buyer has a survey done !

It should speed up the house buying process, as there has already been a pass over the house looking for major flaws, which the seller can rectify before buyers come along, as usually sales fall through when a survey turns something up and then the buyer and seller get into an argument about the price.

Its a good start, perhaps they need to make it a proper full survey

EdInvestor

howee wrote:

......a major reason for the HI is the EU directive which means we have to give an energy rating to each property sold (Like when you purchase domestic appliances and they rate them A to G on efficiency), if this survey was stand alone the price has been estimated at around £200. What the government have done is to include this in the home inspection the total home inspection is only estimated at around £350.

Aha.:idea: That's interesting.


I wonder if this EU energy efficiency directive has got anything to do with another recent questionable regulation emerging from the ODPM.

This is the rule that anyone installing a new central heating boiler has to install a hi-tech, supposedly energy efficient "condensing" boiler.

This rule is tending to cause certain problems, because UK plumbers and heating engineers are not experienced in the operation of these boilers,which are not in common use here. They are mostly imported from Germany and are expensive to buy, install and maintain.There are also question marks about their actual contribution to energy efficiency.

Is the HIP another possibly unnecessary and expensive idea which may suit European property markets (many of which are quite different from ours) but cause additional costs and wastage of resources here?

IMHO this matter would benefit from additional investigation.