Memorandum by Chamberlains Estate Agents
and Chartered Surveyors (DHB 03)
We are a firm of estate agents and Chartered
Surveyors with a single office in Kingsteignton, near Newton Abbot,
Devon. My wife and I are both Chartered Surveyors and started
the firm in 1998. My wife, Angela Chamberlain heads up the agency
side of the business and is also a Chartered Surveyor. Angela
has a background in commercial valuation, residential surveys
and valuation, agency, land, and planning matters. I have experience
in construction cost control, building surveying, and design.
We soon realised just how frustrating and archaic
the home buying/selling process is. We therefore took a keen interest
in the government's research into improving the system.
In January 2002 we started offering the SAVA
Pre Sale Survey to our vendor clients. It was soon clear to us
that a good proportion of vendors saw the potential benefits to
them and took up the service, voluntarily paying an increased
agency fee. Once reports were available, buyers were keen to tell
us that they thought it was very useful to have this information.
The style of the report has also proved easy to read—and,
perhaps more importantly, easy to focus on matters that might
be of concern. During 2002 we carried out approximately 70 pre-sale
surveys. Of these, about 10% had significant defects that, previously,
would have led to later renegotiation or sales falling through.
With the benefit of this information, buyers did not renegotiate
and the fall through rate for these properties (where not withdrawn
by the vendor prior to sale) was zero.
The surveys are produced via computer software
which has made the reports very quick to compile. Whilst the survey
inspection takes the same time as any other Home Buyer's type
survey, the report can be compiled easily normally within an hour.
We are now looking at how we can incorporate
the remainder of the proposed pack. There appear to be only two
further "stages" if we look at it logically:
1. SEARCHES: Land Registry documents &
Local Authority searches can be obtained all as part of a single
application by us at a click of a mouse via NLIS channel providers
such as Searchflow. If we, as the estate agent were to order this
information for the HIP, we would only be involved in about 10-15
minutes work, whilst Searchflow did the rest. By 2006, I would
like to think that Local authorities have come "on-line"
with NLIS so that all this information can be returned within
24-48 hours as it can now in some areas. Cost approx £200.
Conveyancers usually ask for a figure in this region up front
to cover such "disbursements" under the present system.
So, although the government has added this cost to the HIP, they
need not have done. The only additional cost (if no buyer survey
would have been carried out before) will normally be the HCR which
will be relatively inexpensive due to its focus on condition rather
than description and condition of elements within a property.
2. VENDOR SUPPLIED INFORMATION: All other
documentation such as Fixtures & Fittings lists, Warranties,
Property information form, Planning permissions, etc will come
from the vendor although I would expect that we would assist the
vendor where necessary and provide the required standard forms.
Compiling this information could take a matter of hours, but will
depend largely on how quickly the clients themselves wished to
proceed.
What this tells us is that there is a fairly
simple process in compiling a Home Information Pack. In practical
terms there are three operations for the estate agent to manage:
1. HCR, 2. SEARCHES (incl. Land Registry Docs), 3. VENDOR SUPPLIED
INFORMATION. Leasehold properties will, as they do now, add a
degree of complication to the system in the short term until people
realise that it is wise to obtain management accounts etc well
in advance of instructing an estate agent.
The recent U-turn by the National Association
of Estate Agents is a great shame and statements made by them
discredit them as a professional body due to their misunderstanding
of how the new housing market system will operate. For example,
they state that HIPs will not be needed due to the development
of e-conveyancing. Even those developing the model for e-conveyancing
have been clear in stating that HIPs are a complementary part
of e-conveyancing as HIPs will ensure that all the information
that needs to be communicated instantaneously is actually available
in the first place! It would be pointless having an e-conveyancing
system whereby one still had to wait for the searches to be ordered,
fixtures and fittings forms to be completed, and surveys to be
carried out.
The HIPs will provide clarity and transparency
to the home buying/selling process whilst enabling the successful
operation of a future e-conveyancing process. Our experience of
the SAVA Pre Sale Survey is that we can produce it quickly, vendors
see the point to it, buyers openly tell us how useful it is, and
most importantly it has led to fewer problems and thus a lower
fall out rate.
When every property comes to the market with
a HIP our clients will be able to benefit as their buyers do now.
In a compulsory environment the true benefits of HIPs will become
clear as delays in chains are dramatically reduced.
Edward & Angela Chamberlain
Chamberlains Estate Agents & Chartered Surveyors
| 
