Another stealth tax???

[John Galt]

Home sellers pack - £500 from your friendly local government

[Xenophon]

Not keen. Beneficial, I guess, for first-time buyers and any others with no house to sell. As for sellers then it looks like you are being charged for getting your arrangements in order.

[threaded]

They have them in Denmark. Wish I'd read mine a bit closer and got the conversion from hectares to acres the right way round. Wanted a big garden, ended up buying a big farm (came with staff luckily).

[AtW]

It makes perfect sense - why should same procedures to be done about same house every time someone is interested, its not like house gets moved or something.

[Xenophon]

They have them in Denmark. Wish I'd read mine a bit closer and got the conversion from hectares to acres the right way round. Wanted a big garden, ended up buying a big farm (came with staff luckily).

You missed the part that said Farmer Barleymow was included in the deal?!?

[Swamp Thing]

HIPs have the potential to be good for buyers, provided that the right and relevant info goes into them. Neighbourhood planning applications and environmental searches would be a good start. In my case they would certainly have flagged up at a much earlier stage of the process that a neighbour was building an extension (the seller knew this at offer stage, but he somehow had amnesia about this). HIPs should put pressure on sellers to be more open and honest. Yes, sellers will of course add the cost to their asking price, but everything can be haggled these days.

So I’m in favour of HIPs in principle, but I sincerely hope we don’t get a dumbed down final version.

[Dundeegeorge]

Kerching

Business opportunity anyone?
Or would you prefer to sell your soul to eat?

[Mailman]

Actually the only law that needs to be passed is the one that makes accepting a verbal offer binding.

Its just a joke how you can spend so much time in trying to buy a house only to have the owner turn around at a seconds notice to say they are selling to someone else.

Im also certain this has added to the bloat in house prices as well.

However, seeing this is England, it appears that anything that relates to a sensible law is in fact banned in this country!

Mailman

[John Galt]

It makes perfect sense - why should same procedures to be done about same house every time someone is interested, its not like house gets moved or something.

But look what the pack will (possibly) include:


However, sellers or estate agents acting for vendors will be required to assemble lots of legal documents.

They could include a copy of the lease on leasehold properties, and evidence of ownership such as title deeds.

Sellers will also be obliged to have a "home condition" report, a type of structural survey.

New requirements such as an energy efficiency assessment may also be included.

Homes don't move but their conditions and energy efficiency will change. And what about all the land searches etc that the buyer currently purchases through his solicitor - presumably these will still be required. Seems to me that it's just a way of forcing people to have a survey - according to the radio earlier if you do not have a pack you will be fined £200 per day that your house is on the market without one. See, it's all in the fine print!

[AtW]

Homes don't move but their conditions and energy efficiency will change.

Anything that is "fixed", ie unchangeable over period of time (which can be small as when house is on sale it can have lots of interested parties over short period of time) should be paid once and for all rather than have buyers pay it more than once: its inefficiency in the system that only benefits parasites that provide no added value.