Scotland Home Report with/without valuation

pseudonim

I'm using my alternative login to avoid sneaky estate agents spotting the question against my normal login :cool:

I've started the process of putting my house on the market. It's the first time I've sold since the introduction of mandatory Home Reports in Scotland in 2008, although I've sold several times before that.

Looking at the Scottish Government advice to sellers and buyers (www scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report/sellers/advice#a1) leads to a Home Report flowchart (www scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/49296/0124377.pdf). This shows that sellers have the option to commission a Home Report that either includes or excludes a Generic Mortgage Valuation Report (GMVR). Looking elsewhere on the web shows that the GMVR adds considerably to the cost of the Home Report, and may or may not be acceptable to the buyer's mortgage provider.

So I have two questions those who have been selling in Scotland recently (and perhaps the views of buyers might be helpful too):

• If you haven't had a GMVR done has that put off potential buyers?

• Have buyers wishing to proceed then required a Valuation Report (whether GMVR or some other type) and if so who has paid for it?

It's clearly very much a buyer's market at the moment so while the legislation allows for no GMVR I wonder whether the fact of life is that without it the sale will be much more difficult.

googler

See this thread for a link to what can happen without the GMVR

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4485121

goosander

I had the same dilema when I sold last year. In the end I paid for the full report because I suspect that not doing so will cause issues later when you receive an offer - you would probably end up paying for one anyway.

Bear in mind that the report only has a shelf life of 3 months, so if it takes longer than that to sell you will end up paying for a 'refresh'.

Its a ripoff but I think you just have to grit your teeth...

googler

goosander wrote: »

Bear in mind that the report only has a shelf life of 3 months, so if it takes longer than that to sell you will end up paying for a 'refresh'.

That could easily be misinterpreted as 'you have to pay for a refresh every 3 months', which isn't the case...

pseudonim

googler wrote: »

See this thread for a link to what can happen without the GMVR

Thanks googler, I did see that, and a thread Big Aunty started, so I was hoping to get some more views from people who have been through the process.

pseudonim

goosander wrote: »

I had the same dilema when I sold last year. In the end I paid for the full report because I suspect that not doing so will cause issues later when you receive an offer - you would probably end up paying for one anyway.

Bear in mind that the report only has a shelf life of 3 months, so if it takes longer than that to sell you will end up paying for a 'refresh'.

Its a ripoff but I think you just have to grit your teeth...

I imagine I may well end up doing the same thing. However, you are wrong about the shelf life of the report, in fact the legislation specifically makes the point that it has no shelf life. Lenders may require an updated report but it is down to a negotiation who pays for that (although in the current market it is more likely to be the seller).

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

pseudonim wrote: »

It's clearly very much a buyer's market at the moment .

That very much depends where in Scotland you are.

Some areas have prices exceeding previous 2007 peak and now have sales volumes increasing as well.

Some areas are still in the doldrums with prices remaining well below previous peak, and sales volumes very low.

FWIW a report without valuation is often perceived as the vendor having something to hide, so some people won't even look at the house. People now expect the valuation to be in the home report pack.

moneyshoe

We are currently buying in Scotland and so far have only seen one property without a homebuyers report. We assumed it was because they had something to hide.

Last time we bought it was under the old system and I much prefer the new one. The thing is we are much more willing to accept issues such as damp and woodworm as we know about them in advance rather than putting in an offer and then finding out that the property isn't worth what we have offered.

Having said all this they property we have offered on didn't have a homebuyers report. It was on the market for offers around £280,000 we had an offer of £257,000 accepted. Surprise surprise there are major issues on the survey and the surveyor isn't even convinced the place in mortgageable, he reckons it isn't worth more than £230,000. We may well walk away now but feel if the vendors had just been upfront and had a survey done in the first place we could have made an appropriate offer and got our heads around the issue with the property.:mad: Now we are in the position of having to renegotiate the whole sale and the vendors are going to be gutted that we are now going to vastly reduce our offer.

Sorry - bit of a rant but I really wish these people had just coughed up for the homebuyers report as we did and everyone else in Scotland seems to be doing.

pseudonim

Cheers Hamish, thats the sort of feedback I was looking for. I guess I'm likely to end up paying for the full monty because it's what people expect, but as an alternative I've sent the following question to the Scottish Government Central Enquiries Unit:

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The question that I have is, if I pay the extra to commission a GMVR as part of my Home Report, am I entitled to withhold that from the statutory provision to potential buyers (i.e. to just give them the Single Survey, Energy Report and Property Questionnaire) and levy a charge should the buyer wish to view my GMVR rather than commissioning their own mortgage valuation? If so is there any guidance on what that charge may be, or is that open to negotiation with the buyer?[/FONT]

Moneyshoe - I'm not suggesting not supplying a homebuyers report, which would in fact be illegal except in specific circumstances. Instead I'm looking into whether it is necessary to provide more than what is mandatory, which does not include the GMVR (further research leads me to conclude that the Single Survey includes a valuation, but the GMVR puts the information into a format suitable for mortgage providers - although I haven't actually seen one yet).

googler

moneyshoe wrote: »

We are currently buying in Scotland and so far have only seen one property without a homebuyers report. We assumed it was because they had something to hide.

It's not a homebuyers report, it's a Home Report.

It's illegal to market a house for sale without one (unless it has been for sale since before Dec 2008), so unless the owners of that one were doing a totally private sale .... had they advertised it in any way? EDIT: Oh, I see that they had. Tut tut.

Hasbeen

Please remember the Scottish Home report is mainly full of pre printed standard rubbish about energy/usage savings etc.

Only a few pages regarding a very basic cursory survey and the valuations are now based low to get potential buyers interested.

Some mortgage providers will not accept them if they are produced by a home report surveyor not on their list.

It is a very good money earner though for the people producing these reports, with little or nil legal comeback for anything found detrimental after purchase.

Although they do give buyers a very basic idea of the property, it is recommended that potential buyers get a proper in depth survey and valuation if really interested.