Information packs
As we all know, you cannot place your U.K. property on the market without a Home Information Pack. After centuries of caveat emptor, the British house owner must now provide numerous searches and reports on his property before he places it on the market, failing which he or his estate agent might be fined. Given the fact that the trials of these packs were a disaster and loathed by the professionals concerned as time consuming and expensive (and not frankly achieving any reduction in the time taken to sell a house), you may be wondering why the government is so keen on all this additional administration?
The answer lies in the E.U. where the ideas introduced by Napoleon for property sales over two hundred ago have finally crossed the channel. Napoleon's big idea was to dump the Roman concept of caveat emptor (‘let the buyer beware'). Instead his Civil Code placed a legal duty on the seller of a property to disclose any material defect which might affect the price a buyer may pay. The trouble was that a property owner could not be expected to know about technical matters in his house such as timber infestation, lead, asbestos, energy efficiency etc so the seller was required to obtain expert's reports to give the buyer the complete picture. Currently a French property owner may have to produce up to seven of such reports in the French equivalent of the sales pack.
And of course sale packs are now E.U. policy. By European law, all sellers must produce an energy efficiency certificate. It is now a short step for the E.U. to require sellers to produce the complete pack as happens in France.
These reports are advisory only and the overwhelming majority of property buyers appear to take these matters on the chin and regard them as a small inconvenience in the property of their dreams. But if you think otherwise, there is nothing to stop you from using the treatment costs to haggle down the sale price. Or to insist, as a condition of sale, that the seller suffers the costs of treatment/removal before completing the purchase.
As from June 2006, all owners of property situated in an area defined as at risk e.g. from flooding or industrial pollution, are required to retain an expert to draw up a risk assessment of residing in such an area. Like its fellows, this report would be limited in time and must not be less than 3 months old and must be approved by the buyer before he signs his pre-contract.
Next came the gas efficiency certificate which requires the owner of the house to obtain a certificate from a gas expert as to the compliance of his gas network and units in his house.
So despite all its difficulties, the U.K. government must persevere with the packs because it knows that sooner or later this will be a European requirement. And sooner or later the notion we cling to in England of letting the buyer beware will also be reversed. The seller will be required to disclose all material issues arising on his house. And ironically we will be in the same legal position had Napoleon succeeded in invading England in 1806!
Philip Winter-Taylor
Tel: 01233 666968
Email: wintertaylors@aol.com
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