Conveyancing Month!

 

 

  CONTENTS

 The UK’s first monthly on-line journal dedicated to conveyancers!

 

News...

         CML torpedoes HCRs

        

The Council Of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has made it clear that in their view, there are still too many unanswered questions surrounding the introduction of HIPs, and has questioned the governments introduction timetable, urging them to reconsider their decision to introduce HIPs by June 2007. More importantly, the council has made it clear that lenders will still require a valuation on most properties, and will require surveyors, (rather than recently qualified Home Inspectors, who have no other formal qualification) to carry them out.

 

The combined effects of this will be to significantly increase the cost of the HIP (some estimates now put it as high as £1000), and to treat Home Inspectors who qualify under the new training procedures, as second class citizens.

 

According to the CML, Home Condition Reports might - in time - prove useful. “Over time,” they state “robust HCRs that can feed seamlessly into lenders’ information systems may reduce the number of physical inspections that lenders need to make. Where this can happen, consumers could benefit from lower costs, which would help to offset the charges they will have to pay for HIPs.”

 

However, in the short term, the CML are firmly of the opinion that “ ...the introduction of HIPs will not alter the need for a reliable valuation, which is a fundamental requirement for prudent lending and provides security for lenders and borrowers”.

 

The CML have provided the government with a whish list of conditions that will secure their suppot. These include:

 

· Publishing a timetable of key dates

· Publishing detailed plans for the proposed “dry run”

· Publish it’s plans for addressing the potential market impact of the introduction of HIPs

· Undertake a rigorous cost benefit analysis of the introduction of HIPs

 

The government has yet to make a formal response.