Who Wins with the New Home Report?

All homes marketed for sale in Scotland from 1 December require a Home Report which will be made available to all prospective buyers by the seller. The pros and cons of the new report have been exhaustively debated and the Government has now decided to proceed. All professionals in the property sector, surveyors, solicitors and others, are now focused on working hard to make the end product as user-friendly as possible.

DM Hall, like all other firms of chartered surveyors, has engaged positively with the process and is prepared to deliver a quality, trustworthy and transparent single survey service on which the public can rely. In common with other members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Scotland (RICS), we are now training our surveyors to deliver this objectively written report while providing them with the skills they require to meet the requirements of the new report. These include, for example, a detailed energy rating for domestic properties.

The Home Report will contain four elements:

• A single survey and valuation
• An energy report with an energy performance certificate
• A property questionnaire

• A generic mortgage valuation

By law, the first and second items of the Home Report, the single survey and valuation and the energy report, must be carried out by a chartered surveyor who is an RICS member. The property questionnaire will be completed by the seller or the seller’s agent. The benefit of the new Home Report to buyers is they will obtain more comprehensive information on the property in comparison with the more commonly-used Mortgage Valuation Report. Not only will the Home Report include everyday information such as accessibility issues and its council tax band, but it will also contain details on the condition of the property, its energy efficiency rating and, crucially, its valuation.

While Scotland’s ‘offers over’ system may have confused prospective buyers about what a property may be worth, the Home Report valuation provided at the beginning of the process and carried out by a qualified chartered surveyor who is a member of RICS Scotland, will clarify what the property is worth in the prevailing market.

Additionally, Home Reports will save buyers money by removing the need for multiple surveys on different properties they may be interested in buying. It therefore follows that Sellers, too, will benefit from the new system because they will not have to pay for surveys on the homes they are interested in purchasing. Home Reports are especially good news for cash-strapped first time buyers.

Along with the Single Survey and valuation, the chartered surveyor will provide a generic ‘Mortgage Valuation Report’. This will include a statement on mortgageability and other information that many lenders require to assess mortgage risk.

Where the prospective purchaser’s lender wishes to obtain a report on its own bespoke form, for the purposes of processing a mortgage application before offers are submitted, this can be provided from information contained within the generic Mortgage Valuation Report and/or Single Survey by contacting the acting surveyor. Similarly, the successful purchaser’s lender can request a ‘Mortgage Valuation Report’ from the surveyor who conducted the Single Survey.

The market is quieter than it has been for a number of years and, whilst this has created some difficulties, a potential positive consequence is that this is now a good time to introduce this fundamental change to the house buying process. There will be time for all to adjust to the new system.

In conclusion, RICS Scotland and we at DM Hall are satisfied with the new arrangements which have been agreed and feel that the main objectives of the proposal have been fulfilled. We have no issues whatsoever in meeting the current timetable set down by the legislators.