Times They Are a Changing

1st December 2004

T. Wyn Jones

The much vaunted Housing Bill received Royal Assent on 19th November 2004 which represents a major reform of the private housing sector, improving the protection of vulnerable tenants, overhauling home buying and selling and regulating estate agents.

The two main areas that the Housing Act 2004 will affect the ordinary layman are, in my opinion:

Home information packs including home condition reports
As from 2007 anyone marketing a home will be required to provide key information up front before the commencement of marketing the property. This key information will include searches, copy deeds/land registration documents and most importantly what is termed as the “Home Condition Report”. This in essence is a survey of the house (paid for by the seller) which can be then used by a prospective purchaser prior to making an offer on the property.

By having all this information to hand (and which can subsequently be passed on to the purchaser’s solicitor) together with the ability of viewing the “survey” prior to making an offer it is felt that the whole buying & selling process will be speeded up. This of course remains to be seen in the six-month dry run at the back end of 2006.

What I believe we will see is that whilst at present some vendors place their properties on the market “just to test the market” if it is going to cost them say £500 prior to marketing (estimates as to the cost of these packs vary between £300 - £1000) this practice will be few and far between which is no bad thing. But what is of a concern is that there will be numerous house owners out there who just cannot afford the “up front” payment to sell their property, at present the cost of the sale are paid out of the sale proceeds. We will wait and see how it will pan out but I am sure there will be ingenious schemes to offer this service on a “buy now pay later” basis. The second area is:

The Regulation of Estate Agents.
Linked to the use of home information packs Estate Agents will be compelled to belong to a redress scheme for buyers and sellers. This to my mind is long overdue. Those more established agents are either already members of such a scheme or are member firms of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors who by their membership agreement have to carry insurance for any possible redress. All to often we hear of “Cowboy” agents who bring the profession into bad repute, hopefully with the introduction of such a scheme this will be a thing of the past.

So it seems that its all change and whilst it may appear a long way away it is only 19 months until the 6 month dry run starts, but then again the Conservative opposition has pledged to suspend the packs’ introduction immediately if it is elected in the meantime.

For further information on Property Matters Wyn can be contacted on Tel 07702 722905 or by e-mail on wyn@mccartneys.co.uk