Nanny claims that she is trying to help more people afford homes of their own, she bleats daily about the housing market and the shortages of suitable property.
Yet in one fell swoop she will add another £800 to the cost of buying a home in a year's time.
Nanny's much derided Home Information Packs (HIPS) require the production of a plethora of expensive paperwork which, if a home is taken off the market for more than 28 days and later placed back on the market, will have to be updated at a cost to the seller of hundreds of pounds.
Despite these packs, buyers will still have to commission and pay for valuations, particularly if the Loan to Value ratio of the mortgage is over 80% (most first time buyers), or if the buyer has a poor credit rating.
Packs will still be required for low value homes or low demand areas, adding a significant additional cost to selling a home in such circumstances.
Another cost and another layer of bureaucracy. Some companies will of course do very well out of "helping" people prepare these packs.
Such is life in Nanny Britain.
I don't suppose the govt. has thought about the fact that sellers will merely add the cost of the HIP to the selling price, thus pushing up house prices even more.
ReplyDeleteMorons the lot of 'em.
Yes, not only are they morons, but they're incompetent morons, to boot.
ReplyDeleteWhere to begin with the litany of incompetence? Gordon Brown's Tax Credit fiasco? The Home Office? The NHS? Iraq? Afghanistan? Or, closer to home, the incompetence of Blair's little friend (and tennis partner, as we are constantly reminded)?
What odds on Blair walking the plank before the next Queen's Speech?
Can't wait!
Not only companies - don't forget that these packs will be subject to VAT (though how they "add" value to anything beats me) which will earn Goondoom Brown a nice little nest eg to fritter away on more madcap schemes.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Thomas, but the chances of Blair going voluntarily is about as likely as finding a tribe of hippopotamuses (or should that be hippopotami?) living in your local canal!
ReplyDeleteNanny has also recently introduced another way of 'encouraging' the housing market, which works like this. Through what is known as an Empty Dwelling Management Order, local authorities will be legally able and entitled to forcibly enter premises which have been unoccupied for more than six months, even if the property has been unoccupied because of a bereavement or is difficult to sell, and let it out to homeless people for seven years, selling any furnishings and heirlooms in the property.
Rest assured, however, that holiday homes in rural areas or places popular with tourists, such as coastal areas, will be exempt, although it could well be argued that housing owned in such a manner forces property prices up so that local people, especially those starting out in the housing market, are unable to afford to live in the area in which they have dwelt all their lives.
It is also gratifying to know that Tony Blair and his ministers will also be exempt from this legislation. Talk about one law for the government and another for everyone else! Thank you Nanny!!
Lord of Atlantis said ...
ReplyDeleteSorry, Thomas, but the chances of Blair going voluntarily is about as likely as finding a tribe of hippopotamuses (or should that be hippopotami?) living in your local canal!
Couldn't agree more.
I thought walking the plank was a common form of (rather non-voluntary) punishment used by pirates.
But I was wrong. I went here:
http://blindkat.hegewisch.net/
pirates/punish.html#plank
and found this:
'Walking the Plank
'For the most part, walking the plank is a Hollywood myth. There are a few accounts that people were forced to walk the plank by Pirates of the South China Sea. There is also one account that Barthalomew Roberts forced some of his captives to walk the plank. However, the accounts are suspect at best. Still, pirate were known to come up with some rather ingenoious ways to torture their captives so it is quite possible that some enterprising fellow with a sharp sadistic mind would've come up with such a develish plan.
'For the most part pirates preferred the time-honored method of a "heave to". That is, they picked up the culprit and simply tossed him/her overboard.'
The spelling may be a bit Elizabethan, but at least I've learned something new today!
So, what constitutes 'putting a property on the market'?
ReplyDeleteIf you sign up with an Estate Agent to promote the sale of the house I suppose that counts.
But what if you somply let the Agent (or anyone else for that matter, perhaps via the internet) know that you might be prepared to sell if someone made an interesting offer? Could you then wait until the deal was much more certain (as far as property deals are ever certain) before getting a pack prepared?
What happens of you 'trade in' a house to a builder - will they still need a HIPS pack?
Maybe just have a gas leak, watch the place blow up, claim the insurance and then sell off the plot for redevelopment.
It all sounds to me like Dick Turpin's progeny have found a way of persuading people that theft is a valid and legal way of earning a living. Compulsory even.