Solicitors' feedback sought on house alterations

Society survey attempts to gauge scale of problem of unauthorised alterations

News, 13 March 2007

The Law Society of Scotland is looking for members' views on the extent to which unauthorised property alterations cause problems in the housing market.

As part of the Society's information gathering exercise to assist its response to the consultation on the single survey and property information pack, solicitors are being asked to give their opinions on a simple series questions posted to the Society's website www.lawscot.org.uk

The 12 questions, each answered simply by selecting the preferred option from a list presented, seek to find out the estimated proportion of transactions affected by enquiries about alterations, how these are resolved, whether the problem is getting worse or better, the cost and delay involved, and whether consent processes are consistently followed by authorities.

The survey concludes by asking for the primary causes of problems for clients in the buying process, whether alterations or some other factor such as multiple surveys, underpricing, delayed loan instructions etc.

It runs for the rest of this month and should only take about three minutes to complete.