Home Report Haddington

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The East Lothian branch of Allied Surveyors Scotland is based in the historic market town of Haddington at 21 Church Street. Haddington is a Royal Burgh and is the administrative centre of East Lothian. It is situated on the banks of the River Tyne and boasts St Mary’s Collegiate Church, the longest parish church in Scotland, as its main landmark.

The office is lucky enough to cover such a picturesque area which includes some fine rural hamlets and villages such as Stenton and Gifford as well as the more well known coastal towns such as North Berwick and Dunbar. There is a wide range of property types in East Lothian and Simon Breeze, the local director, has experience of surveying and valuing the full gamut from studio flats through to grand period homes with land.

As well as the stunning views, golf is a major draw to East Lothian. Some of the best regarded and well-known courses in the UK are situated along the ‘Golf Coast’ including Muirfield, The North Berwick West Links Course, the three Gullane Golf Club courses and the oldest playing golf course in the world, Musselburgh Links. There are also a number of new clubs in the area, including Archerfield, Craigielaw and The Renaissance, which look set to rival these more established courses.

The local property market has been improving slowly but steadily over the past few years and the value of the majority of properties is now higher than it was before the 2007/8 crash. 2016, in particular, has been very solid so far with a constant stream of Home Reports for the office with a good number of these properties achieving relatively quick sales. The average property prices in East Lothian have been buoyed by North Berwick which has gone from strength to strength and rivals some of the more prestigious areas of Edinburgh in terms of value.

Evidence of the strength of the local market can be seen in the number of new build developments currently being undertaken. Major house builders such as CALA Homes, Persimmon, The Walker Group and David Wilson Homes are currently on site at North Berwick, Haddington, Dunbar, Tranent and Musselburgh.

Home Reports

Since 1 December 2008, it has been a legal requirement for the seller of a residential property to obtain a Home Report before marketing the property (there are a small number of exceptions such as sales of new build properties and private sales.)

The Home Report is usually arranged through the selling agent or solicitor but it is perfectly acceptable for the seller to arrange it themselves. The seller is responsible for the cost of the Home Report which ranges from £360 (inc VAT) to over £1,000 depending on the value of the property. However, this cost will be somewhat negated by the fact the seller, most likely, will not have to pay for a survey for the property they will be purchasing (assuming it is in Scotland).

The Home Report includes far more information than the Mortgage Valuations which approximately 90% of purchaser relied on before Home Reports existed. The information in a Home Report is split into four sections:

The Single Survey

This forms the majority of the report. Part one of the Single Survey is basically a description of the property including the construction, the heating system, garages/outbuildings and garden ground. Part two of the Single Survey is probably the key part of the report as it provides a condition review with the various parts of the property being given a condition rating from a ‘1’, which means ‘no immediate action or repair is needed’ to a ‘3’ which means an ‘urgent repair or replacement is needed now’. A category ‘2’ covers repairs which will require future attention.

The Market Value is also included in the Single Survey.

The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)

This document provides an ‘Energy Rating’ based on items such as the construction method, the heating system, insulation levels and even the number of low energy light bulbs. The EPC provides useful information about what works could be carried out to a property to make it more energy efficient.

The Property Questionnaire

The document is provided by the seller and includes useful information such as the service providers, the Council Tax banding and whether any alterations have been carried out to the property.

The Mortgage Valuation (MV)

The MV is a summary of the rest of the report which is used for lending purposes. If the purchaser of the property needs a mortgage, the lender can ask the surveyor to provide a transcription of the MV which it then uses to help it make a lending decision. Allied Surveyors Scotland is on all the major lending panels so can provide MV transcriptions to all the major lenders.

Some of the regulations surrounding Home Reports include:

1 – The Home Report must be no more than 12 weeks old when the property is first marketed.

2 – The property can be taken off the market for up to four weeks without having to arrange a new Home Report.

3 – The Home Report does not need renewing if the property is continuously marketed. If it takes longer than three months to sell the property, a Replacement Home Report may be required for lending purposes but this will only be needed at the time of sale, not every three months.

There are far more regulations surrounding Home Reports. Further information can be found at this website:

www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report

Further Information

If you would like any further information, or would like to arrange a Home Report, please do not hesitate to contact us. Details as follows:

Address – 21 Church Street, Haddington, EH41 3EX

Phone – 01620 825585

Email – haddington@alliedsurveyorsscotland.com

Web – www.alliedsurveyorsscotland.com

Home Report Quotation

If you would like a quote for a Home Report please contact the office or click on this link: