Sellers to pay for surveys
4 Mar 05
Single house survey scheme to become mandatory
Single surveys for house sales are to become mandatory across Scotland, the Scottish Executive announced yesterday.
The single survey will provide prospective buyers with detailed information about the condition of a house or flat before making an offer and help to cut the common and costly problem of multiple surveys.
Under the proposals, sellers will be required to commission a survey and make it available to potential buyers when they put their homes on the market. The cost will eventually be reimbursed by the purchaser.
The change will be introduced in the forthcoming Housing Bill and brought into force by a date in 2007.
The news comes despite the fact that a 12 month long pilot survey to test the scheme, which still has four months to run, has only managed to attract 74 responses.
Malcolm Chisholm, communities minister, said: "For most people, buying a house is the most expensive purchase of their lives. Yet the worry of spending hundreds of pounds on what could be wasted surveys means many house buyers take ownership of their new property lacking an in-depth knowledge of its condition.
"We know that one in four buyers face unexpected repair costs of around £3,700 in their first year in their new home, while in popular areas, a third of buyers effectively waste hundreds of pounds on surveys that don't lead to a purchase.
"A single survey scheme will provide buyers and sellers with a range of useful information on the property being sold, alerting people to existing or potential problems that can be prevented through maintenance, helping address the urgent repair headache.”