Home reports update

It is now over four months since home reports were introduced last December. The Society is continuing to monitor and reflect the views of its members on how the new system is working in practice. Every year Scottish solicitors are directly involved in helping tens of thousands of people move home. They are ideally placed to gauge whether home reports are genuinely in the public interest – perhaps more so than politicians, civil servants, academics and consumer groups. As always the profession is adapting to change and is implementing the legislation to meet clients’ needs. The various solicitors’ property centres are supplying many of the reports.

Feedback so far indicates that some members favour the new system, finding home reports an effective marketing tool for sellers and a source of useful information for prospective purchasers. However many remain highly sceptical of the benefits.

There are five main areas of concern:

• That the cost of obtaining the report is discouraging potential sellers from entering the market.
• That initial marketing of properties is being delayed by several weeks while a report is prepared.
• That some sellers are seeking a number of valuations of their property and then ordering the single survey from the surveyor providing the highest.
• That there are delays in concluding missives while lenders approve the single survey.
• That lenders may not accept the single survey even when provided by a firm of surveyors on their panel, instead insisting on a separate valuation at the purchaser’s expense.

The age of home reports may also become an issue given the Society’s advice that purchasers should not rely on ones prepared more than 12 weeks previously.

The Scottish Government has announced plans for an interim appraisal of home reports, pending a full review sometime next year. This appraisal is with a view to refining the legislation. The Society will fully engage in this process. It has also sought to widen the scope of the appraisal to include the options of removal of the compulsory element of the single survey, and even suspension or abandonment of the whole scheme if it is clear that it is having a detrimental effect on the property market. In the meantime please continue to give your feedback on home reports (johnscott@lawscot.org.uk).