"The
current situation is bad enough" says Trevor Kent, former president
of the National Association of Estate Agents, " presently, an
owner must pay £350 for a Home Information Pack (HIP), but once ordered
and paid for, at least marketing can begin.
Come 2nd January an intending seller will not only have to buy
the useless HIP, but also wait up to 14 days (until part of the HIP report
is actually back with the seller) before a single flyer can be printed,
advert booked or a board erected". This is the case whether
an agent is used or the owner is trying to sell privately.
Estate
agents are just beginning to consider how they will deal with
desperate sellers in January, especially those with leasehold homes
and/or unregistered titles where long delays are inevitable.
Signatories to a No 10 Downing Street petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Homeinfopacks have increased
by 59% in the last two days as an end to 'First Day Marketing'
moves inexorably closer.
"Can
you imagine the pressure that will be exerted by a seller upon their
estate agent demanding they market the home immediately
they've measured-up?" asks Trevor Kent, himself a practicing agent
in South Bucks, "we will be intimidated by the threat of withdrawal
of our instructions and forced to have to consider breaking the law in
order to stay in business".
The
irony is that if estate agents capitulate to their clients demands and
start marketing on the first day in order to stay in business, the
Government have legislated that the Office of Fair Trading will then
close them down for marketing before HIPs arrive. " Heads
we lose, tails we lose" concludes Trevor Kent, "but the public
will lose too as they begin to realise in the New Year what a
draconian world we now live in, where governments even stop you
marketing your home when you want to".
Ends
TREVOR
KENT is former
president of the
National
Association of Estate Agents and a
regular
broadcast property commentator based
in
Gerrards Cross, South Bucks.
01753
885522
ISDN
by appointment
trevor@homeinformationpacks.com
© Trevor Kent
