Why are searches not commissioned by homeowners?

[Ohmygoddddd]

Would it not be much easier to compel homeowners to prepare a pack for potential buyers which includes a survey/the searches ready for sale? The number one worst aspect of buying/selling is the awful, drawn out protracted process of slowly finding out the issues with the home you are buying and any potential re negotiations/sales falling through.

If we all just had this information to start with it would be so much more efficient and set prices at a realistic standard, so any offers could factor in any structural issues/alarming results from the searches etc.

I just cannot fathom why we allow the system to be like this and why there isn't more of a push to change it.

It's been noted above how the contents are weaker than the survey received in England though.

Very informative - thanks! I remembered the packs coming in and people offering to train people up as assessors (for a fee, of course).

Is there an option now for buyers who have changed their minds to sell on any surveys to potential new buyers, or are people not happy with that?

I think people's attitudes to the surveys change too - first time round I was anxiously looking at every point in the report. Now I feel I have a better handle on what's actually a potential problem or not.

@Ohmygoddddd would you like to buy some magic beans?

Depends on the English surveyor tbh. I’ve bought and sold in both England and Scotland.

Hiya

The system we have in England is the best IMHO. The searches are goig to be current as they can be and carried out by a solicotor the potential buyer trusts.

As you may be aware some property can be on the market for months and sales fall through

Therefore, your idea would be a burden on the seller, how many searches would you expect them to complete? As you know sales fail becuse chains colapspe, buyers and or sellers pull out etc etc

Therefore, the method we have in England is the best

For your info - we have bought and sold around 10 properties over the last 22 years. So have been buyers and sellers. But we only bought chain free and sold to chain free or ready to go with cash/mortgages - yes we do lose a bit on money by losing out on those in a chain may pay more, but its more of a risk for sale to fall through the longer it goes on

For anyone interested, this lovely old property has a Home Report that you access from RM. You can see the level of detail provided.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135814655#/?channel=RES_BUY

But this EPC is going to terrify me!

This was tried in England some years ago, with sellers' packs. It simply didn't work. Buyers didn't trust sellers and/or sellers' solicitors, so it ended up with both 'sides' doing it, so cost more and took just as long.

I wouldn't trust anyone but my own solicitors to organise searches. Just as I'd never organise a mortgage through a house agent, use a house agent's solicitors, or take the slightest notice of any survey or report I hadn't commissioned myself.

Normally you can't sell on a survey without the surveyors' permission. In fact, you can't even share its contents with the seller or a house agent without permission from the surveyor if its anything like any I've ever had. People will not accept this is the case because they don't like it, but I bet if you read any survey and its contract, it'll be in there somewhere.
If you do want to share/sell a part or all of it, you can always just ask the surveyor. We wanted to share a small part of one with a vendor (because a court would have to see it) and the surveyor was fine about it. But you do need permission. Selling it on might be a different matter, they might want a share of the payment, and I suspect the buyer wouldn't be able to sue the surveyor if they had made a hash of it unless the surveyor could transfer the contract in some way to the person you sold it to.

They are only as good as the time done, so it is better for buyer to control when that point is on the process.

Searches expire after 3 months and some such as local searches planning records are best as fresh as possible. These would be pretty much guaranteed to be expire during the sales and transaction period. Buyers now become sellers in the future, when this responsibility would be their so sooner or later everyone pays for searches. The buyer has a responsibility to investigate the transaction in their own interests, it’s usually their biggest asset and outlay, hence the term buyer beware. When they come to sell they will benefit from less to do on title as they aren’t the one risking the purchase.

I thought that the HIP was part of the law, anyway at the time you had to have one before marketing your property. The idea was to make the process quicker but it didn't help because buyers' conveyancers made all the usual enquiries anyway to cover themselves.

@romatheroamer it was a short lived initiative, all the searches were expiring. The conveyancers aren’t covering themselves they are investigating the most significant financial decision of most people’s lives on their customer’s behalf. Increasingly hard to find a decent conveyancer or a customer who understands their value though. Goodness knows there are much more profitable ways of being a lawyer which offer more recognition, especially in commercial law. Lots of firms no longer offer conveyancing services which are increasingly siloed in call centres which barely a qualified solicitor in sight.

This isn't really true, searches are done via a council pack, standard search & they don't really run out, as the vast majority are longer term i.e Drains & Planning but that could change the day after the planning search is done of course!
LR search is about title, hardly likely to change, same with a bankruptcy one, though that is usually done by the estate agent before going to market ime.
imho the best you can do is take out search indemnity insurance.

Trouble with a survey is the expensive stuff cannot be looked at properly by the surveyor i.e fabric of building and CH system, unless you further with damp surveys and CH service, which the seller can veto....

We are lucky, always get a builder - close relative - to look at the property on 2nd viewing.

LR search is about title, hardly likely to change

Title can change. For instance, a spouse's name can be added if not already recorded.

It's also about charges on a property mortgages, charging orders obtained by creditors.

Are people getting searches and survey mixed up?

..and all that can change after the LR search done, they don't provide live up dates, which was my point, adding stuff to the title deed is an extremely long winded process, LR are beyond slow.

Which is why Search insurance is a must.

Hi

Sorry to disagree to a small extent

"don't run out." True, but how about you had a search colted last week and then a day/week/etc after, my best friend Tory Blair put in a planning application for a 69 storey building right next to the lovely home you was hoping t purchase.

Thats why you have search insurance, i mentioned this twice already.

Again, searches are like an MOT, its one off .... On that day there were no planning apps etc affecting your purchase, the day after that can change but the council will not tell you.

You re not really disagreeing, more not reading what i wrote.

Works well in Scotland and has been the law since 2008. The Home Report commissioned and paid for by the seller covers a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire and an energy report.

There is nothing to stop purchasers paying for their own reports. But no one does because waste of money.

https://www.mygov.scot/buying-a-home/home-report

Sorry, I missed that. However, how will a "search insurance" help a buyer when a tower block goes up to them next door, one they were not aware of?

We've moved a few times over the 20 years. Trust me moving with a family and being a bit worried about moving ext door to people from hell is very worrying, demanding and stressful. We worked when we moved, so that was extra stress.

I'm not having a go at you, just pointing out my concerns

Mosaic123 · 21/02/2024 12:56

I wouldn't trust a homeowner either”

They wouldn’t be preparing the pack, professionals would. Scottish system is excellent, our simplest purchase ever (after 6 in England).

I find the house buying process in the UK absolutely mind-boggling and the searches play a part in that.

The council should just make this information available on their website, then anyone including the mortgage company can check it out and decide if they want to proceed or not. My local council charged 80 pounds for this. Ridiculous.

@Vaccances how do you think priority searches work at the land registry?

Having bought/sold in England and Scotland, the Scottish Home Report system works much better. Also means you have the value for mortgage purposes upfront. The ‘offers over’ situ annoys me though!

When I said covering themselves I didn't mean that they weren't fulfilling their professional obligations.