Returning from our Mayfair Office regional meetings, all agents had the grumble that the sales process seems to be taking longer and longer, mainly down to delayed searches and a complicated process on the gaining of a mortgage. We tried the HIPS that failed, but surely there must be a better system, the following from recent article is worth a thought;
Ministers are reportedly considering a crackdown on buyers and sellers who pull out of a deal at the last minute, or who try to gazump or gazunder each other.
They are considering making house purchases legally binding much earlier in the process – for example, at the stage where an offer is accepted.
If either the buyer or seller pulled out afterwards, they would have to pay the other party’s costs.
In the March Budget the Government said: “We will publish a call for evidence on how to make the process better value for money and more consumer friendly.”
It now appears that the Government is gearing up to call for that evidence, through a consultation on speeding up and improving the home buying process.
A spokesperson has ruled out simply importing the Scottish system wholesale south of the border.
In Scotland, deals are binding once missives are exchanged, which rules out gazumping and gazundering.
Mark Hayward, managing director of the National Association of Estate Agents, told BBC Radio 5 Live that other alternatives could be having a pre-contract agreement or charging the buyer a deposit, but warned these were unlikely to be popular solutions.
He also warned that the Scottish system, where gazumping is banned, is by no means perfect.
He said: “The Scottish system is sometimes referred to as the ideal system, but if you speak to people in Scotland they may disagree. The onus is on the purchaser who has to have carried out all the checks before making an offer on the off-chance that it would get accepted.
“We perhaps need a hybrid system. In France you have a ten-day cooling-off period after an offer is accepted.”
Hayward added that the whole ‘100-year-old’ legal process of buying a property needed an overhaul.
Source: Property Industry Eye 11th May 2016
