Government proposes sensible homebuying reforms?

daveyjp

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82047663#Comment_82047663

Its not only legal system or custom and practice, its the nature of the property market. If house prices barely move over the years it is far easier to lend money on a property. Our system doesn't operate like that, growth is expected, but for that a property needs to be in good condition and free from encumbrances which reduce values now or into the future.

Another difference with Scottish system is most propeties are sold via agents which are part of a solicitors practice, so the seller's solicitor is well up to speed before the property goes on the market.

jez9999

I think the government should ignore all of you and force this through. So there. 🤣

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82047849#Comment_82047849

It's that kind of thinking which led to HIPS being forced through against expert advice, and ending up as something of a fiasco.

jez9999

The "expert advice" being "yeah, the current system's basically OK. 1/3rd of chains fall through but some people have an OK time with it and it's really stressful but if you have a million quid to buy a house outright it's not so stressful so really, what's the problem?"

OldScientist

According to https://www.quickmovenow.com/blog/32-percent-of-property-sales-fall-through-before-completion of the third of property sales that fell through before completion in Q1 2025, 35% were caused by difficulties in getting a mortgage, 26% as a result of poor survey, 17% resulted from a change in buyer circumstances, and 13% due to failures in renegotiating the sale price.

The upfront home information pack would certainly address the 26% failing due to a poor survey and (potentially) the 13% resulting from failure to renegotiate the sale price, but would not really impact the mortgage difficulties or change in circumstances. However, if the proposal cut down the overall failure rate from 32% to 20% that would still be an improvement.

As for a move to digital systems, I note that we have just been through two online ID checks (the vendors EA and our solicitors used different platforms - it would have been cheaper and quicker if we'd only needed to do it once) and that much of the form filling for our solicitors is done online (only the contracts and transfer documents have needed to be printed, signed, and posted back so that signatures in ink are held) - in other words, at least parts of the industry have already adopted digital systems in an effort to reduce their own costs. However, the system still relies on us (i.e., buyers and sellers) to respond promptly to requests for information.

Yorkie1

Further article on the topic:

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/prime-minister-announces-homebuying-shakeup/5127111.article

clairec666

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82048225#Comment_82048225

Additionally, there may be reductions to the 35% caused by "difficulties in getting a mortgage", and 17% caused by "change in buyer circumstance", as buyers may try to be more sure of their circumstances before committing to anything, and less likely to change their mind and pull out.

I don't think the suggested changes are perfect, but they certainly would have helped me a great deal - initial anxiety that I would get gazumped, and now some concerns about the property that would hopefully have been covered by the home information pack.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82047865#Comment_82047865

Exactly.

user1977

Anything which speeds up transactions will reduce the risk of them falling through. If they're pointlessly dragging on for months then it's more likely something will intervene (job concerns, health issues, family events, jitters about property prices or wider economic things).

Now, you might argue it's (accidentally) a good thing that you didn't commit yourself e.g. a week before you got made redundant, but at some point you've got to bite the bullet and get on with the deal.

Though I get the impression from posts here that any reforms still won't deal with the way English solicitors are handling the work - they seem to be intent on taking as long as possible and create some mysticism that their tasks ought to take weeks rather than minutes.

horsewithnoname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82047028#Comment_82047028

when I was first looking for a home, stamp duty was on houses over £100,000 which was fairytale money and nothing a normal person had to worry about. Unfortunately it wasn’t raised for years while rampant house price inflation was somehow sold as a brilliant thing (probably by people who owned several houses?), and now here we are. Should probably be on houses over five million pounds or something.