In message .uk, Ed
Sirett writes
On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 20:51:01 +0100, Mike wrote:


wrote in message
oups.com...
I know someone who had a corgi interview the other day. The corgi
interviewer apparently went on about many people not being able to sell
their home in 2007, due to this survey I would presume. When a seller
gets the survey, and they know the recent history of the house, it will
be more of a decision as to whether every little change, wiring mod
etc. is mentioned I suppose. Unless you just get a company in to the
the survey by the book without telling him anything. Also, I wonder if
this survey will include building control etc. I expect the corgi bloke
is expecting loads of inspection work in 2007 and some more corgi
golden years.
Do people agree / disagree with this corgi's opinions ?


Although you will have to fill in the forms, it will be quite acceptable to
write "not known" or "information not available" across every question just
as it is with the current solicitors information form. It is then up to the
purchaser to decide to proceed or not. If the regulations were tightened
more in response, you would see more properties moving to some sort of
auction, albeit one with possible an indefinite time period and high
reserve, where no guarantees on the property being auctioned exist.

Apparently on the ball conveyancing clerks are starting to ask for
certificates on the state of the gas/water/electric installations.

The effect of this legislation, IMHO, will be to fragment the
housing market into certified and uncertified segments. It's not clear to
me just what the relative size of the two markets would be. It is likely
to depend on a number of factors. However I suspect strongly that mortgage
lenders will take the line of least resistance and only lend against
'benchmark' houses. If that happens almost all houses will be 'to
standard' and it will take a great deal of marginally necessary work to
get them up to the the letter of the regs. If however mortgages were
available for any house then I suspect that only the top of the market
will get the 'A1' certificates.



Ed,

In 1991 I did a course on the New Estate Agent Regulations and David
Perkins talked about a future where every house for sale had a log book,
service record, and survey, and a title document and search, in the
file. He also talked about buyers having pre-arranged finance. This
would enable the deal to be done in the estate agents office, (with a
few faxes involving the lender and the Land Registry), thus putting
solicitors out of business, (or forcing them to become estate agents).

It's not dissimilar to the car market really, and those properties with
more information will be more valuable, (how much, remains to be seen).

--
Richard Faulkner