Home information packs

[adwt2004]

I will soon be having some gas work done but I wondered what happens to the thousands of people who would of legally had work done in the past, boiler ch installs etc but don't have the necessary documentation.

Do people think these are going to crash the housing market or make other people very rich from yet more legislation?

 

[Alfredo]

I think you will find that there is no requirement to have records before a certain date(I'm not sure what the date is). That will not stop solicitors for the purchaser from asking for them, however. The seller merely has to point out to the buyer that the installation predates this legal requirement. The overall condition of the CH system will be included in the HIP, but if the buyer want their own survey done they are quite at liberty to pay for one.

I doubt this will crash the housing market. It will stop f*****g idiots buying houses which are complete cr*p without a survey and then ringing my wife at the council and moaning and whinging because she won't use public money to bail the stupid b******s out. She gets about three of these calls every month at present.

Roll on HIP say I

Alfredo

 

[joe-90]

I doubt this will crash the housing market. It will stop f*****g idiots buying houses which are complete cr*p without a survey and then ringing my wife at the council and moaning and whinging because she won't use public money to bail the stupid b******s out. She gets about three of these calls every month at present.

Roll on HIP say I

Alfredo

Three a month! She sounds terribly overworked.

 

[pickles]

It will not make the slightest difference. There are cheap forms of insurance you can buy to deal with any problems around historic breaches of the building regs. Typical cost £50- £250 and the policy lasts for 25 years.

HIP's will just cause delay and cost sellers a load of money for nothing. You can't change human nature and it's the chain of related sales and purchases that cause the problem with all the conflicting personal agendas you get that cause the delays.

There's an army of legal pretenders moving into the market and the average HIP probably won't be worth the time and effort that goes into it.

It's a completely crap idea, the only good thing is that the home condition report has been dropped from the scheme which really would have been a complete waste of money

If people want to speed buying and selling up we should have a sealed bid system like they do in Scotland.

 

[Alfredo]

"It's a completely rubbish idea, the only good thing is that the home condition report has been dropped from the scheme which really would have been a complete waste of money "

Which is why it works perfectly well in numerous other European countries I suppose . The Scottish idea cures some problems but creates others like a mammoth business in bridging loans from which Scottish lawyers make a fortune

"Three a month! She sounds terribly overworked"

If only...She gets to deal with all the 'fun' people like illegal travellers sites(dogs,guns, fly tipping etc) Landlords who think the law doesn't apply to them (gas safety, fire safety, harrassment etc) The gits who think your and my taxes should pay for the new roof on the house they didn't get a survey on ...The only deserving bunch on her books are the elderly and disabled who get some (inadequate) funding for their needs. The list is endless my friend believe you me. and no you would not want the job, and yes she is trying to get out of the s***h**e that local government has become..30 years is a long enough sentence.

Alfredo

 

[joe-90]

It was a joke, mate - chill - it's Christmas.

 

[pickles]

It may work in other countries Alfredo, but it will not actually add any value to the Uk system because the thing it changes isn't the problem.

In the UK the system of asking questions after a sale is agreed is seen as bad and a source of delay that needs fixing. The government think that if they cure this by creating a "pack" for buyers they will just read them through and say that's fine and move in a week. What will happen is that the pack will either be incomplete or raise issues that have to be looked into and no one will be any further forward, plus the seller will be paying for the whole thing up front. I think it could push costs up significantly once the initial blood bath is over between the pack providers and a few organisations dominate the market.

What the government don't understand is that it's the system of chain conveyancing with many related sales and purchases that cause the problem. It's cumbersome and because the whole thing goes at the speed of the slowest person, who often has either a problem or a wish to delay things to suit their own purposes people get very frustrated by it all. It's actually rare for the sort of information that the packs will contain to cause a serious delay at present.

This time of year is a good example of the trouble chains cause, some people are desperate to eat their turkey on a packing crate come what may and the rest want to leave it till the end of January. The rows that develop over dates can easily waste ten days with everyone getting increasingly shirty until someone finally gives in and camps out at their mums for a few weeks

They are also adding energy efficency certificates to the packs which is just plain dumb euro burocracy. They will cost time and money to prepare and any fool knows a victorian house is less energy efficient than a modern one. There is no evidence the public actually want to know this as part of the buying process and it just adds to the waste of time and paper involved

No systems perfect and i'm sure even the Scottish one has it's flaws. I'm curious about Scottish Lawyers and bridging loans. Do you mean Scottish banks make a fortune, presumably they lend the money not the lawyers.

 

[empip]

I am thinking the revenue hounds will be looking at the possibility of applying a carbon tax on the home - in their never ending search for funds to blow...

Tommy Boyd's house of the future ...Click Here

 

[trotter]

A provisional start date agreed at the earliest point of contact

With penalties written into the contract for missing it (either side)

Seems sensible to me

A pre-contract almost

Particularly if they are standardised - people would then know what to expect


I think the current system - which ended up with me being told on the proposed day of exchange that the seller wanted six more weeks - is unfair. I was led down the garden path.


It is just storing up trouble leaving the move date until the very last moment, that should be done early in the process, surely

 

[pickles]

Bad luck trotter, that must have ****ed you off. Unfortunately until you know you can buy it, ie the titles safe it's hard to agree dates, particularily when every other man and his dog is in the chain. That's more to do with dealing with people than the legal system

The Scottish have it about right. It's not perfect but you make a bid and you get certainty, you know the price, the date and there's no one else involved

 

[BOB..DOLE]

No you dont have to have the central heating in the report, or electrics its just the construction the others are volentery