FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HOME CONDITION REPORT AND HOME INSPECTORS

WHAT ARE THE STATED BENEFITS TO CONSUMERS?

Introduction of the Home Information Pack and the Home Condition Report will address a number of issues for home buyers and sellers including:

• Consumer dissatisfaction - nearly nine out of 10 consumers are dissatisfied with the present process;
• Lack of transparency - at present key information about the property only becomes available after terms of the sale have been agreed;
• High transaction failure rate - 28 per cent of property sales fail after terms have been agreed due to the findings of survey reports;
• High costs of failed transactions for consumers - over £350m lost a year;
• Slow transaction process - twice the European average;
• Uncertainty – 60 per cent of property sales are in chains. Delay or failure in one has a knock-on effect through the chain.

Other direct benefits for home buyers and sellers:

• Consumer confidence – estate agents marketing homes with Home Information Packs will be required, for the first time, to belong to an approved redress scheme. This means more peace of mind and a better standard of service for consumers who will be able to complain to an independent industry body if they’re not happy with how they have been treated.
• First time buyers – will receive Home Information Packs for ‘free’, making it easier and less expensive for them to get their first foot onto the property ladder;
• Sustainable home ownership – information in the pack (for example about property condition) will ensure that buyers are not faced with unexpected repairs and other commitments they cannot afford.

WHAT ARE THE STATED BENEFITS TO THE INDUSTRY?

There are undoubted benefits that Home Information Packs will bring to the Industry

• Improving the process of buying and selling by reducing the number of transaction failures and reducing the time taken between offer and acceptance;
• Improving the condition and sustainability of housing stock - Making a positive contribution to the condition and sustainability of the housing stock - by ensuring home buyers and sellers are aware of the true condition of the property;
• A step on the ladder for new generations of home owners - through more affordable entry costs and simpler process for first time buyers;
• Training for the qualification in Home Inspection, for those wishing to add the qualification to their existing portfolio and for those looking to train in a completely new career;
• Joined up processes through industry forging links to provide a seamless service to consumers.

An intensive government communications programme is already underway to give consumers as much information as possible on the benefits of Home Information Packs. Progressively, TV and print advertising and public relations will be used to raise awareness to key stakeholders and consumers about the implementation of Home Information Packs

FURTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

In order to address the many enquiries we receive on a regular basis, we have reproduced a series of frequently asked questions published on the government’s website:

Will there be enough Home Inspectors to meet the demand for home inspections?
3,200 Home Inspectors are already trained or being trained. We are monitoring the situation and we are confident that the required numbers will be in place. We have reviewed the initial assessment of the number of Home Inspectors required, and this has produced a range of between 5,000 and 7,400. We continue to keep the position under review.

Where can I find a Home Inspector?
Most sellers will use the services of estate agents who in turn will appoint Home Information Pack providers to assemble the components of the pack. It is likely therefore that the estate agent or pack provider will commission a Home Inspector on a seller’s behalf. Sellers can also commission a Home Inspector directly and they can be expected to advertise locally and nationally in the same way as surveying firms do now. Certification Schemes will be required to hold public registers of their members as a condition of their approval and the public will be able to search the registers, through a single point of access, to find a Home Inspector operating in their area.

How can we trust a Home Inspector?
Buyers, sellers and lenders will have a contractual right to rely on the Home Condition Report. If there are errors in the report, consumer-friendly means of redress will be available to buyers and sellers. All Home Inspectors will be required to have suitable indemnity insurance cover. The conduct of Home Inspectors will be regulated by Certification Schemes operating to standards set and monitored by DCLG.

Certification Schemes will be approved by the Secretary of State. The Housing Act 2004 requires that the Secretary of State must be satisfied that a Certification Scheme contains appropriate provision for ensuring that members of the Scheme are ‘fit and proper’ and qualified persons to produce Home Condition Reports and that they have suitable insurance. Certification Schemes will ensure that the necessary checks are made before a prospective Home Inspector is added to their public register. The Certification Schemes will monitor the standards of their members and DCLG will monitor the performance of the Schemes.

Can lenders rely on the integrity of the Home Inspector status as illustrated by the system or will some kind of checking routine be needed?
Yes lenders can rely on the integrity of Home Condition Reports. Certification Schemes will be required to do checks to ensure that Home Inspectors remain fit and proper persons who are qualified and insured to produce Home Condition Reports. This will include monitoring Home Inspectors’ work as well as ensuring they comply with life long learning requirements and other quality assurance requirements. DCLG will put in place procedures to monitor the compliance of Certification Schemes with standards set by DCLG.

In-house teams of Chartered Surveyors don’t often have ISO registration etc for quality, but comply with all FSA rules and carry out valuations for companies who are ISO registered. How will this be taken into consideration for the Home Inspector qualification?
Certification Schemes will be required to ensure that their members continue to maintain the required standards. This is likely to involve home inspectors in satisfying quality management requirements as well as external checks undertaken by Certification Schemes. The Home Condition Report does not contain a valuation and therefore FSA rules are unlikely to apply to this work.

As a Home Inspector candidate how do I become a member of a Certification Scheme?
Certification Schemes will be approved by the Secretary of State. A prospective Home Inspector will approach a Certification Scheme, which will check that the person is a fit and proper person who is qualified and insured before admitting them as a member.

What will be the mechanism for self-employed, accredited Home Inspectors, to undertake Home Condition Reports?
As with any prospective Home Inspector, the person would need to meet the criteria to become a member of a Certification Scheme (i.e. a fit and proper person, who is qualified and insured).

The Home Inspector would be engaged by the seller (or an estate agent or Home Information Pack provider acting on their behalf) and would complete the report in accordance with the inspection and reporting requirements prescribed by their Certification Scheme. When completed, the Home Condition Report would be lodged on the Certification Scheme’s local Home Condition Report register which would check the report and automatically register it on the Home Condition Report Register kept by DCLG.

Are there plans for a Home Inspector Ombudsman?
Certification Schemes will be required to establish independent consumer-friendly arrangements for resolving consumer complaints about Home Inspectors and their work. We intend that these arrangements would operate in a similar way to an ombudsman scheme but that they would not be formally constituted as an ombudsman

Early resolution of the assessment and accreditation of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) qualified and experienced residential surveyors. These people need to get through to qualification easier and it will ensure that such surveyors decide to qualify mitigating the risk of inadequate Home Inspectors numbers.
3,200 Home Inspectors are already trained or being trained demonstrating good numbers of Home Inspectors coming forward. The qualification has already been amended, with the agreement of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, to ensure that the assessment process can take place smoothly and efficiently taking into account quality assurance systems operated by employers of residential surveyors for their staff.

Can a Home Inspector employed by an estate agent carry out a Home Condition Report for sales associated with that estate agent?
As long as the Home Inspector is a member of a Certification Scheme, there are no absolute rules to prevent a Home Inspector preparing Home Condition Reports for an estate agent that is also the Home Inspector’s employer. Home Inspectors will be required to comply with a code of conduct which will set out the requirements for their behaviour in relation to conflicts of interest. Where the Home Inspector has or is likely to have any personal or business relationship with any person involved in the sale of the property this must be stated on the face of the Home Condition Report.

For more information and additional FAQs follow the link to the DCLG website:

http://www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk