Scotland Home Report with/without valuation

bananz

We are just in the process of buying near Glasgow and every home report we have seen has included a valuation report. I would have considered it a bit off if a seller was wanting to charge extra for the valuation report! As it was, our lender has accepted the report our seller provided for the valuation which has greatly speeded up the buying process as it meant our full mortgage offer was made within 2 days.

pseudonim

Hasbeen, I take your final point, but do buyers feel the same way? Clearly bananz hasn't gone for the full survey, and I wonder how many others do, given that very few people did before the introduction of Home Reports.

googler

Hasbeen wrote: »

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

Yes, the format is pre-set, because the Govt determined this prior to their launch. Surveyors don't have the option to rewrite the core of it as they please ....

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

The lion's share of an HR is taken up by the survey - not by the owner's property questionnaire, not by the valuation.

How do justify the claim that the "valuations are now based low" .... I think the RICS might take exception to you besmirching their good name.

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

True

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.

The legislation clearly lays out the surveyors' liability to both the seller AND the buyer. Have you read it?

Also, it's now less of a money earner for surveyors in general. Prior to HRs, surveyors could be called out by different buyers to survey the same house and could claim multiple fees for repeating the same survey. Now, the intention is - one house, one survey, regardless of number of buyers.

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.

Recommended by whom?

Hasbeen

You obviously do not live in Scotland.

I have seen numerous ones and had to get one done myself cost £800, surveyor did agree most of report is useless.

A few pages regarding state of property and valuation would be lower than value, as in his words to get buyers interested. Quite common.

Owners questionnaire is not compulsory


You have to ask estate agents to get sent pack details

It is a basic report to give potential buyers an idea of state of property, but if really serious about buying then the offer is put in subject to survey. That's when the proper full survey is done with buyers paying for it.

Below is just one of views on these
http://www.caesar-howie.co.uk/latest-news/2013/03/04/home-report-failures-continue/

googler

The property questionnaire is compulsory. See Q1 on this page. I can find the legislation, too, given enough time...

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report/buyers/faqs

googler

Hasbeen wrote: »

You obviously do not live in Scotland.

Who, me? Why is that 'obvious' ...?

I have seen numerous ones and had to get one done myself cost £800, surveyor did agree most of report is useless.

A few pages regarding state of property and valuation would be lower than value, as in his words to get buyers interested. Quite common.

Is your surveyor also your selling agent? That would explain him pitching a low valuation, but if you were getting the report done by an independent surveyor, as most do, I can't imagine he would give a stuff about the amount of interest in the property, as once the survey is done, he won't be selling it ...

You have to ask estate agents to get sent pack details

So what? What's unusual about asking the seller or their agent for a report that they're obliged by law to provide?

It is a basic report to give potential buyers an idea of state of property, but if really serious about buying then the offer is put in subject to survey. That's when the proper full survey is done with buyers paying for it.

This is your opinion on what you would do, not what actually happens, surely?

Below is just one of views on these
http://www.caesar-howie.co.uk/latest-news/2013/03/04/home-report-failures-continue/

The C&H page you linked to seems to imply that only one of their cases went awry, not a whole series of them.

And your assertion was originally that 'valuations' were low (plural), implying that was common practice, but in actual fact, only yours was, by the look of it.

googler

googler wrote: »

The property questionnaire is compulsory. See Q1 on this page. I can find the legislation, too, given enough time...

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report/buyers/faqs

See Section 4, Prescribed Documents (i.e. compulsory)

http://legislation.data.gov.uk/ssi/2008/76/made/data.htm?wrap=true

lemon26

Having recently bought a new house and sold my old one, both in Scotland, I think the idea behind the HR is good, although the system is somewhat flawed.

When I first bought, in 2006, I had to pay for a survey for each of the houses I wanted to buy (kept getting out-bid as an FTB until I found mine at fixed price and got my offer in first). This ocst me over £1000 which could have meant a slightly smaller mortgage etc... So the idea behind one report available to all is good.

However, when I bought my new house in 2011, the HR was not acceptabel to my lender (well-known High Street lender) as it was done on behalf of the seller and could be considerde a conflict-of-interests. Luckily their mortgage offer included a survey so that didin't cost me anything extra.

Now, my old house went on the market in Dec 2011 also and I had to pay £400 for my HR, which took 15 minutes (I really should have tried harder in school) and then appeared to be more of a list of what wasn't covered that what was and was full of spelling mistakes and inaccuracies (wrong type of boiler etc...) so it took a month to get a correct one issued.

As they're only 'acceptable' for three months this meant that we only got two months out of our first report before having to pay a further £100 to renew it. Imagine our surprise when only the date had changed, nothing else - including teh fact the house was fully furnished even thoug it'd been empty for 3 months. This took two months to correct so the replacement was only valid for one month, rather than three...

Also, the surveyor dropped the value, as the house had been on the market for 6 months, then the neighbour's identical house came on the market - for the value that mine had started out at. Assuming that they were identical inside, which they weren't as mine was modernised and hers wasn't, which woudl you have bought?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed War and Peace

rpc

The lender you used has a most unusual policy then. As long as the surveyor is on a lender's panel, it should be accepted.

A Home Report refresh isn't required periodically. It will be required when the mortgage application goes in. The house can sit on the market for a long time with the initial home report, as one of ours did. The refresh only needs doing if a lender insists on it when the buyer applies for a mortgage. It does not need to be refreshed to continue marketing the property and to do so is simply giving away money.

googler

lemon26 wrote: »

Having recently bought a new house and sold my old one, both in Scotland, I think the idea behind the HR is good, although the system is somewhat flawed.

Whilst you've outlined what went wrong for you, I'm not certain what you see as the flaws in 'the system ....

When I first bought, in 2006 ... So the idea behind one report available to all is good.

As they're only 'acceptable' for three months this meant that we only got two months out of our first report before having to pay a further £100 to renew it. Imagine our surprise when only the date had changed, nothing else - including teh fact the house was fully furnished even though it'd been empty for 3 months. This took two months to correct so the replacement was only valid for one month, rather than three...

I'm not sure why you felt the need to get a refresh done, unless you had a buyer. There's nothing in the legislation to say that an HR expires after any period of time. The time that they usually get refreshed is when a seller gets an offer, and their lender says "The HR is over 3 mths old. Can we have a refresh please?"

As rpc says, there's no need to get a refresh done every 3 months.