If it's to cost a cool £1,000 to prepare a HIP next June to sell your house how many people will decide not to bother? The resulting lack of properties for sale will increse demand for those that are left so forcing values up some say dramatically!! The government claims to have everyone especially FTB's interest at heart yet they will indirectly price many of them out of the market! The sale process takes takes too long because solicitor's and mortgage companies have little incentive for the process to go quickly this is the cause of most problems yet the government are n't addressing these issues with the HIP?
Scrap the idea that's what I say it brings nothing to the table!
"The greatest trick the Devil played, was convincing us all that he did not exist"
It would be far more sensible to drop the Home Condition Report (HCR) and Searches as these have a limited shelf life.
The pack should contain, a draft contract and associated docs. That way the buyers solicitor can get onto the case immediately, applying for the search when appropriate and leaving the buyer responsible obtaining an up to date survey if required.
This would still cut a few weeks off the process. However, as a fundamental part of the HCR is the energy rating certificate, which I’m told will be required by the Kyoto treaty, I feel that the government will do every thing possible to make this mandatory, even if some changes are made pre June 07
Would people really decide not to move house if it was going to cost them an extra £1000? Surely people move house becuase they need a different house, not because they feel like a bit of fun? Or am I naive...?
There's a lot of well reasoned antagonism toward HIPs but it doesn't change the fact that a building with a dodgy history soaks up a fortune in surveyor's fees and really cheeses buyers off. A classic example is the house with dodgy roof timbers, difficult to access without a full survey, potentially extremely expensive and one such place kept surveyors in a little earner for years. There's nothing wong with a comprehensive house report at the owner's cost but whether HIPs is it is another matter.
Originally posted by Hatster: Would people really decide not to move house if it was going to cost them an extra £1000? Surely people move house becuase they need a different house, not because they feel like a bit of fun? Or am I naive...?
Not necessarily so. Need is a strong word and means the purchaser has no alternative but to move. I don't need to move - my house is in a decent location, is large enough for our needs and we have no itention of moving to a different part of the Country. If we decided to move it would be because we wanted to and not because we need to. A £1000 bill just to put up a 'for sale' board could influence our decision.
i dont think a grand will really stop people from moving house if they really have to. It might, however, deter a lot of the people who just put their house on the market to see how much it is worth. Plus those which are left on the market a long time while people are waiting for their a buyer to purchase it at a ridiculous price. Its these properties which are helping to keep house prices high.
Originally posted by immy21: If it's to cost a cool £1,000 to prepare a HIP next June to sell your house how many people will decide not to bother? The resulting lack of properties for sale will increse demand for those that are left so forcing values up some say dramatically!! The government claims to have everyone especially FTB's interest at heart yet they will indirectly price many of them out of the market! The sale process takes takes too long because solicitor's and mortgage companies have little incentive for the process to go quickly this is the cause of most problems yet the government are n't addressing these issues with the HIP?
Scrap the idea that's what I say it brings nothing to the table!
Are you implying that people move for the fun of it and that an extra £1000 will stop them playing the moving game?
HIPs are a drop in the ocean in the big scheme of things. Sure it might deter some of the kite fliers from listing their houses, but that is hardly a bad thing - unless you're an estate agent hoping for a lucky sale to a mug.
A reduction in properties for sale would also mean a reduciton in the number of buyers (most sellers become buyers remember), so the arguments about the balance between buyers and sellers being upset is pretty much a red herring.
Sure, HIPs might result in slighty lower turnover of property, but that's not really a problem to the average man in the street.
HIP's will not make the Selling and Buying of property any smoother or quicker which was fundamentally the whole purpose of the HIP's Project in the first place. Where do wish to start the Debate?
I'll kick it off..........
7000 Government Backed and Government Trained Inspectors are required to administer this HIP's Project......Only 659 are currently under training. Result? Insufficient Trained Inspectors to move the Selling process along quickly. Delays inevitable don't you think? Doomed to Failure IMO Mel.
Originally posted by MELBOY: HIP's will not make the Selling and Buying of property any smoother or quicker
I agree with you 100% MELBOY.
However, I prefer to think of HIPs simply as a 'permit' to market your property. I would really like to see an end to the kitefliers, who regularly stick their property on the market each spring for 15-20% above market value. Most don't sell, and then get withdraw come the autumn, only to repeat the trick again next year.
Meanwhile, sellers point to these 'kite fliers' as a reason why their houses are so competively priced and why they don't need to entertain offers below asking price.
The 'kite fliers' act as an artificial lift to prices (and obviously make it into indices such as Rightmove).
I wonder if removal of the "kite fliers" will mean Rightmoves average (fudged) price will come down significantly. Do you think the BBC will jump on this like they did with the rises?
Originally posted by MELBOY: HIP's will not make the Selling and Buying of property any smoother or quicker which was fundamentally the whole purpose of the HIP's Project in the first place. Where do wish to start the Debate?
I'll kick it off..........
7000 Government Backed and Government Trained Inspectors are required to administer this HIP's Project......Only 659 are currently under training. Result? Insufficient Trained Inspectors to move the Selling process along quickly. Delays inevitable don't you think? Doomed to Failure IMO Mel.
Meanwhile the RICS has thousands of fully qualified surveyors with years of building inspection experience, who've carried out millions of mortgage inspections - none of whom can be licenced to do the work without going through the same training as Jo Bloggs who doesn't know a semi from a terrace.
Quote 'Meanwhile the RICS has thousands of fully qualified surveyors with years of building inspection experience, who've carried out millions of mortgage inspections - none of whom can be licenced to do the work without going through the same training as Jo Bloggs who doesn't know a semi from a terrace.'
daveyj, Thats not the case, qualified surveyors will take a shorter course estimated at about 10 days.
All it is doing is moving some of the costs from the buyer to the seller, and that may encourage more people to pay just a little more for the property as they haven't got to find the money for the fees.
What I want to know is; if you get a HIP, apparantly you can pay for it when the property sells if you haven't got the money up front. That would be useful for a probate property, as the relatives might be skint! But, what happens if you cannot sell the property? Say three agents tell you it is worth £190k, and you market it for that and you are skint and want to downsize. And it turns out that the property does not sell, the best offer is £160k, so you cannot afford to downsize. Do you still have to pay for the HIP? If so, this will put some people off for sure.
The proposal is that the cost will be offset by a Credit Agreement, similar to the 'buy now pay later' deals offered by sofa retailers. If the property doesn't sell then yes the seller will eventually have to find the money.
Brixmorta, you say that the seller is not to be obliged to update the pack; but some houses take ages to sell. How out-of-date is the pack allowed to be?
behind every successful man is a disbelieving mother-in-law
So if the buyer still has to pay for the valuation, the only monetory saving they will make is the searches, which is a few hundred quid? That can't be right!
What is the point of having a surveyor in and not having a valuation? If the lender has to do a survey, the buyer will pay for it, so it basically generates two costs instead of one, and doesn't save the buyer a great deal, only the searches and stuff which is £200 odd.
To the best of my knowledge there is no definative shelf life, although it is generally accepted that about 3 months for the searches and HCR is about acceptable. The buyers solicitor will no doubt advise when would be prudent to update these two items in particular.
It will save the buyer having to commission a home buyers survey assuming they want one. This is usually currently done at same time as valuation to cut costs.
