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What is Certificate for your house?


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There is a new law imminent in the UK that requires all houses up for sale to have a "Home Information Pack" - which will cost the seller several hundred pounds. These packs are assembled by specially trained "Assessors" and contain information that is normal procedure when buying/selling a property but is paid for the buyer and partially the seller e.g. surveys, insulation, condition and so on.

The big problem with this, apart from providing a load of unnecessary and unwanted bureaucracy, there aren't enough assessors trained/qualified for when the regulations come into force (or should that be farce).

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It's pretty obvious that the seller will add this extra cost to the buying price, hence the rush to buy

This is true but, in my opinion, people need to be careful as not only are house prices at an all time high but there's a chance that interest rates could rise still further :0

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It's pretty obvious that the seller will add this extra cost to the buying price, hence the rush to buy

This is true but, in my opinion, people need to be careful as not only are house prices at an all time high but there's a chance that interest rates could rise still further :0

Part of the problem is that lenders now lend far too much, and this has made buying too easy, and pushed up prices even more. When we bought many years ago. We were not allowed to have a mortgage payment per month higher than one weeks salary, and ONLY ONE income could be taken into account. We also had to put at least 10% down as a deposit. All this meant that people had to save before they could buy, and could afford to carry on with the payments even if the wife got pregnant. Now many lenders will advance MORE than 100% of the purchase price.

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Thanks for that info. Sounds to me like just another leftie idea in the political correctness dogma designed of course by that Italian Communist in Moscow in 1917 to destroy western society by destroying the family unit and therefore men will not go fight for their country etc etc.

As a retired Real Estate Agent, I find the idea ludicrous. I mean from what I remember the RE Agents in UK they do very little to sell a house, virtually just list it, setting out room sizes and make up a info sheet to hand out and then collect the fee. ( I think it is probably doing what we do here in our job - outlined roughly below.)

Whereas we here do heaps more, like we list the house, but are responsible for making sure that the boundaries are correct and the fences in right place, if we advise a buyer that the home is on deep sewer and it is on septics and the main sewer passes, we pay for the home to be connected up, we are also responsible for making sure that any additions, patio's sheds, garages all have council building approvals and of course that the people signing up to sell are actually the real owners. There is also Trade Practices that covers the land the home stands on - to cover areas that flood in spring or winter so that the buyer is aware and not caught out. All the responsibility of the Agent.

On selling we conduct buyers through the property each and every time, never allowed to go alone or approach the owners, our job to sell that is why they pay us etc. We also must endeavour to get the highest possible price and to write up the contract of sale, get finance if the buyer needs it, get any survey arranged, white ant certificate, and see to freeing up each and every condition on the contract so that it can go forward to settlement, also responsible for making sure rates are properly proportioned between buyer and seller, do the final inspection with the buyer to see if all is as first inspected, and then to hand over the keys to the property. All in all, we work the whole time and the seller and buyer are covered, we also do not use solicitors but settlement agents licensed in most states to do just conveyancing, which means you have an expert on the job and not just the bloke's secretary which is who does it for a much larger fee here if people still go to a lawyer.

Bet somewhere in that lot is what the people doing the job of assessing are going to do and who will licence and train them?

We do the appraisal, to find the price on the property, we are not allowed to call it a valuation as we are not licensed valuers, but in order to obtain a Certificate to practice real estate as an agent and not just as a salesmen, you have to actually do valuations, building and construction, 1st year Law, Land tenure and quite a lot of other parts of real property. 4 years course.

Thing that I always laughed at was the State Valuer General's Office would ring the local agent for updates on the area values, but wow betide us to call our appraisal a valuation - bureaucracy at work.

So if your Agent does not do all that, and from buying a house in UK before we came out here 35 years back, they didn't then, we had to go ring the owners and then view it and go back and say we want to buy it, got sent to a lawyer, and then had to go find our own finance. Also never saw the Agent again, actually never had our own which is what you get here - your own personal Agent or Sales Rep who looks after you from start to finish, as a buyer or as a seller.

Hate to say this but sounds typical of Labor - band aid solutions on the run if anything Labor here, and do it then think about how to actually go about doing it in reality as it was just someone's left wing idea of how to organise the peons their way :rolleyes:

Same here re irresponsible lending of far too much monies for housing. Used to be as 'ansome said, his wage and 10% minimum deposit but some Banks wanted 15 or 20% and no more than 25% of income to monthly repayment. Most payments are fortnightly now as saves interest. Never lent much on the wife's income as she could start a family etc Now same as there can borrow 100% and that is totally irresponsible as they also lend heaps on credit card limits without tieing it all back to income and we have billions out of the plastic at around 18% interest if you dont pay it off monthly. Our interest rates are 8.2% variable, and if they go up will catch a few out as our house prices are also too high due to the too high borrowings making more buyers than should be out there if they were still doing it conservatively with the interest of the borrower at heart instead of profit and greed, CEO's and Board's big salary packages and some dividends back to shareholders to keep them quiet. Same old as UK I bet as global market and its bottom line is King along with Profit and Greed. :lol:

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It is an unfortunate fact that many in the UK are not aware of the fact that you do NOT need an estate agent, and can legally sell the house all by yourself. They are no better than parasites, and charge as much as 2.5%. Using an agent can cost several thousand pounds, a completely unnecessary cost. My son recently sold his house on the internet. It cost him £50.

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Good luck to him, can work out fine.

I sold my last one myself naturally - cost me $12.50 for one ad.

Have you got Torrens Titles over there yet or still on old system of chain of deeds etc?

Fairly new house in new area with no caveats or covenants on the title are easy to sell, but older properties in towns and cities on older titles have a lot of old rights of way and stuff like that to contend with. Agents are trained to deal with this, but use a lawyer and you are in for thousands in fees which we do for nothing but commission on sale.

Work on commission only, no salary so work your butt off. :lol:

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I think the original idea was very sound as it meant that every buyer looking at a house didn't have to spend out money to find out what the seller was covering up, the trouble is it was watered down so the buyer still has to do the searches anyhow. The original idea was a good one as long as you had nothing to hide. The solicitors and estate agents didn't like it because it made it easer to buy a house so taking money out of their pockets, hence the talked the powers to be into watering it down by getting the media on their side and then the public thought they were losing out and started to complain about it, or so we were led to believe by the media.

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I think the original idea was very sound as it meant that every buyer looking at a house didn't have to spend out money to find out what the seller was covering up, the trouble is it was watered down so the buyer still has to do the searches anyhow. The original idea was a good one as long as you had nothing to hide. The solicitors and estate agents didn't like it because it made it easer to buy a house so taking money out of their pockets, hence the talked the powers to be into watering it down by getting the media on their side and then the public thought they were losing out and started to complain about it, or so we were led to believe by the media.

Probably very true.

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I am waiting for the time when legislation is brought in that obliges everyone to employ a fully trained expert to test each sheet of toilet paper, for finger resistance, at the moment immediately before use. This will raise standards, reduce unemployment and cut down on water usage, all in one great leap forwards.

And it can all be done at your own convenience.

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I am waiting for the time when legislation is brought in that obliges everyone to employ a fully trained expert to test each sheet of toilet paper, for finger resistance, at the moment immediately before use. This will raise standards, reduce unemployment and cut down on water usage, all in one great leap forwards.

And it can all be done at your own convenience.

I always worry about buying recycled toilet paper. How do they get it clean and who gathers it all in for cleaning and recycling in the first instance. Plus of course, there is always the question as to who used it first time round. :lol:

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Part of the problem is that lenders now lend far too much, and this has made buying too easy, and pushed up prices even more. When we bought many years ago. We were not allowed to have a mortgage payment per month higher than one weeks salary, and ONLY ONE income could be taken into account. We also had to put at least 10% down as a deposit. All this meant that people had to save before they could buy, and could afford to carry on with the payments even if the wife got pregnant. Now many lenders will advance MORE than 100% of the purchase price.

Agreed.

It is far too easy to get credit nowadays :blink:

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It is an unfortunate fact that many in the UK are not aware of the fact that you do NOT need an estate agent, and can legally sell the house all by yourself. They are no better than parasites, and charge as much as 2.5%. Using an agent can cost several thousand pounds, a completely unnecessary cost. My son recently sold his house on the internet. It cost him £50.

I will admit to not knowing that!

I thought that you had to go through an Estate Agent!

I'll bear that in mind if I ever want to sell my house in future.

Thanks for the tip.

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There is also no need to have a solicitor if you don't want one. My son did his own conveyancing, saving even more money. The buyers solicitor at first refused to deal with Mike, until it was pointed out to him that he had to whether or not he liked it. Mike obviously new more about the law on this occasion than he did. Mike was on safe grounds on this occasion, as he was not buying a new property so there were no traps to fall into. His girlfriend also sold her house in the same way, but did use a solicitor to buy an old bungalow as a replacement. They intend demolishing the garage of the bungalow, and putting in a service road. Her brother will then build them a new house in the grounds of the bungalow, which they will then let out. They have outline planning permission, and are awaiting final approval which is due shortly.

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There is also no need to have a solicitor if you don't want one. My son did his own conveyancing, saving even more money. The buyers solicitor at first refused to deal with Mike, until it was pointed out to him that he had to whether or not he liked it. Mike obviously new more about the law on this occasion than he did. Mike was on safe grounds on this occasion, as he was not buying a new property so there were no traps to fall into. His girlfriend also sold her house in the same way, but did use a solicitor to buy an old bungalow as a replacement. They intend demolishing the garage of the bungalow, and putting in a service road. Her brother will then build them a new house in the grounds of the bungalow, which they will then let out. They have outline planning permission, and are awaiting final approval which is due shortly.

More opportunist speculators.

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There is also no need to have a solicitor if you don't want one. My son did his own conveyancing, saving even more money. The buyers solicitor at first refused to deal with Mike, until it was pointed out to him that he had to whether or not he liked it. Mike obviously new more about the law on this occasion than he did. Mike was on safe grounds on this occasion, as he was not buying a new property so there were no traps to fall into. His girlfriend also sold her house in the same way, but did use a solicitor to buy an old bungalow as a replacement. They intend demolishing the garage of the bungalow, and putting in a service road. Her brother will then build them a new house in the grounds of the bungalow, which they will then let out. They have outline planning permission, and are awaiting final approval which is due shortly.

More opportunist speculators.

I agree. I hate what is happening all around the country. There is a new house in loads of back gardens. Beats me why anyone would want a house in such proximity to somebody else.

My daughter moved house last thursday. She paid the estate agent a fee of £5000 which was to include a solicitor's service and all searches etc. Her old house sold almost immediately - most of what the 'package' included didn't deliver - they only exchanged contracts last tuesday - just as well it all went off ok because everyone was packed and had paid out for removals . Two days of worry for all concerned especially the people whose house my daughter bought as they had already shipped all their furniture to Canada.

It takes some confidence for your average person to do the selling and purchasing of a house. Not everyone feels able.

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There is also no need to have a solicitor if you don't want one. My son did his own conveyancing, saving even more money. The buyers solicitor at first refused to deal with Mike, until it was pointed out to him that he had to whether or not he liked it. Mike obviously new more about the law on this occasion than he did. Mike was on safe grounds on this occasion, as he was not buying a new property so there were no traps to fall into. His girlfriend also sold her house in the same way, but did use a solicitor to buy an old bungalow as a replacement. They intend demolishing the garage of the bungalow, and putting in a service road. Her brother will then build them a new house in the grounds of the bungalow, which they will then let out. They have outline planning permission, and are awaiting final approval which is due shortly.

More opportunist speculators.

I agree. I hate what is happening all around the country. There is a new house in loads of back gardens. Beats me why anyone would want a house in such proximity to somebody else. My daughter moved house last thursday. She paid the estate agent a fee of £5000 which was to include a solicitor's service and all searches etc. Her old house sold almost immediately - most of what the 'package' included didn't deliver - they only exchanged contracts last tuesday - just as well it all went off ok because everyone was packed and had paid out for removals . Two days of worry for all concerned especially the people whose house my daughter bought as they had already shipped all their furniture to Canada.

It takes some confidence for your average person to do the selling and purchasing of a house. Not everyone feels able.

]

In this instance it is an exceptionally large garden. Both Mikes new house and the old bungalow will still have larger gardens than is the norm in new properties. As mentioned, they will own both the old bungalow and also their new house, as they intend the let the bungalow. There is a larger space next to the existing garage than is normal, and plenty of space for the planned service road. There is not a property on that side, but a large car park for the village hall, which is next door on that side.

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