Sellers of Properties May Have to Pay for Home Surveys

28th March 2007

Sellers of property may be forced to pay for expensive Surveys when they sell their property, despite being ruled out earlier by Ministers on controversial new Home Information Pack rules.

The Government backed down on plans to introduce £1,000 Home Information Packs containing a Home Condition report after widespread opposition in 2006.  A watered-down version will be introduced from the 1st June when sellers will have to pay about £130 for an Energy Performance Certificate giving the property a ‘green rating’. 

A report by MPs published in March revealed that Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly believes that the full Home Condition Report will ‘ultimately’ come into force.

The move has outraged opponents, who said the plans were already flawed. 

Miss Kelly told the Communities and Local Government Committee; ‘I am convinced that the market is changing in such a way that consumers will want this, buyers will want this, sellers will want a Home Condition Report and, in fact it will be in the interest of Estate Agents ultimately as well.’

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Law Society and the National Association of Estate Agents urged the Government not to go back on its word.