More Home Report Pain

The National Association of Estate Agents and the Council of Mortgage Lenders have now reportedly come out against Home reports – claiming they are “strangling the property market”.  The Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Law Agents Society and most Solicitors property centres also oppose them.  Consequently virtually all professionals in the property market are against these reports – and their English equivalents – Home Information Packs have long since been ditched by the UK Parliament. Caesar and Howie were prominent in the failed campaign to stop the Home Report legislation.  In the firm’s experience buyers generally do not trust the reports and sellers object to the high and continuing costs involved in commissioning the reports and then updating or “refreshing” them. The government indicate the reports will be reviewed in December.  David Borrowman, Senior Partner, comments “It will be interesting to see if any new review process is at all objective.  The last one was little more than a PR exercise on the alleged “benefits” of these reports.  If a government official were to come and explain to some of our clients why they have paid hundreds of pounds for home reports nobody has even read, the official would find out pretty quickly what folk think about this daft system.  But don’t hold your breath.”