Helping Innovate Property (HIP) – Blog, Housing Market News and Articles

The key to energy saving in the home is efficiency. More efficient insulation, for instance, leads to more efficient heating systems as less heat is lost.

Lowering energy bills is an aim that every homeowner has in mind, and the only way to achieve this in these days of rising costs is to use less. For a few useful tips on how to start using less gas and electricity – and at no extra cost – read on.

Electrical items and standby mode

We’ll start by looking at electricity, a vital but increasingly expensive source of energy that is wasted to surprising levels without us realising. For instance, are you aware that more than three quarters of the energy used by a simple device such as a DVD player is accounted for while the unit is not actually being used?

It’s true – leave a DVD player on permanent standby and you will use over 75% more electricity than is actually needed to watch a film.

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It is a nightmare scenario in which the value of your property falls below that of the loans secured on it and it is likely to affect a great number of homeowners in the coming years thanks to the worldwide recession.

In fact, estimates put the number of homes falling into the negative equity zone at over two million by the year 2010, with over quarter of a million having joined the statistics in the last few months.

What should you do if you find yourself in the negative equity trap?

First and foremost, a couple of important points: your mortgage lender wants his money, not your house, hence repossession is very much the final option. The bailiffs will only be despatched to your door as a last resort. Also, house prices fluctuate – what is falling now may be rising in a few years – and negative equity will affect those who have to sell their homes while in the trap. If you can stay put for a while, do so, and you should find yourself climbing out of the zone in time.

Try and reduce the debt

At the first signs of negative equity – and for those who are unsure, this is the point where the market value of your property becomes less than the mortgage secured upon it (and any other loans that may use the property as collateral) – the thing to do is take stock. Investigate ways of cutting the debt – many mortgage lenders will have an option available to pay off a chunk of the mortgage, generally up to ten percent – by using available funds. Of course, you should not consider taking out further loans, but if you happen to have savings then it may be worth using these to reduce the mortgage amount repayable in the first instance.

If paying off some of the loan is not an option you should still contact your lender, and straight away.

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With the current financial crisis impacting on house sales, those looking for extra space may be well advised to extend rather than sell, adding value for when the market picks up following the fall.

Among the most proven of additions is the loft extension, a way of utilising space that tends to be disregarded and becomes a store of junk. There are a number of steps you should take if you want to think about converting your loft to living space, and the best way to start is to get up there and have a look.

Things to take into account are the pitch angle and the height of the roof. The general rule is that you must have 2.3 metres height for decent headroom, and remember that the use of ‘dormer’ style windows – those that project horizontally from the roof – can give extra headroom at the eaves.

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You’ve cleaned the windows, weeded the garden, touched up the paintwork and swept the drive, and still nobody wants to buy your well priced and presentable house. The scenario is familiar to all who have gone through the rigmarole of selling a property, but all is not lost; within an affordable budget there are a few things you can do that will most certainly add to the desirability of your house.

I imagine a number have been put off already by the word ‘budget’, but read on and you’ll see that a major impact can be made for relatively little outlay.

Paint the walls

The first step is to look at the walls. If you have heavily patterned wallpaper it can be off-putting for some buyers, as many will look at the décor and decide that it is not ‘for them’ as much as the last house they viewed.

The trick is to present a blank canvas. Read the rest of this entry »

You will have heard about Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and the full roll out that finished on the 1st October. Anyone involved in domestic or non domestic property will come across them in some capacity. However, in amongst all the legislation in the regulations there is another requirement that may take some by surprise.

From 1st October 2008 all public sector buildings, which are non dwellings, with public access and above 1,000 square meters will need to have a valid Display Energy Certificate, or DEC. Council offices would need one, leisure centres would need one, hospitals would need one, a large school may need one, but only if it is publically owed and has public access. No private building is required to have a valid DEC, although there is nothing to stop someone having one on a voluntary basis.

There are two elements to a DEC. The first is the Certificate. This is an annually renewable document which is based on the analysis of the building utility bills. The other is an Advisory Report which is based on an inspection and is valid for up to seven years. It is a legal requirement to display the Certificate at all times, such as in a public reception area, and to have an accompanying valid Advisory Report available to be produced if requested by anyone who asks for it. Failure to have both elements of a valid DEC in your possession can result in fines.

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Every day we read of drastic predictions for housing prices and the imminent crash of the property market, but when a report states that the average house has fallen by ‘X’ percent since a given date, one has to remember that the figure is taken across all areas of the country. It figures, that some locations must be performing considerably better than others. So where are they?

If you think I’m about to list a series of villages populated by football players and other super-rich types, you may be surprised, for the places on the list are as varied as could possible be.

Analysts have pointed to areas that have already suffered drastic losses in the period before the recent downturn – among these is the town of Warrington, a former industrial area that is undergoing regeneration. The latter is another factor in beating the fall, as areas that are already at rock bottom and are being spruced up and reinvented are generally performing very well.

An airport on Anglesey

An interesting exception to the gloom and doom is the Welsh island of Anglesey, a popular holiday destination to the north of the principality. Anglesey has recently opened an airport, bringing it much closer to England and Wales with regular flights to Cardiff. Agents in Anglesey report healthy sales, with no notable reductions of late.

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UK Property sales have slowed or as some describe ‘died’ and mortgage applications are at the lowest acceptance rates for years. The UK property market can seem to be in a tail spin at present and it is hard to look anywhere without apparent bad news emerging. Though, is it bad news for everyone?

For those people on fixed rate mortgages that are coming to an end with a high Loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage deal there are without doubt; unfortunately going to be difficult times ahead and the possibility of securing a mortgage with an attractive interest rate seems to be reducing.

However, to bring some positivity into the current market it does present attractive buying opportunities for some. Lets take our young couple who entered the property market 5 years ago and successfully obtained a relatively small mortgage in todays standards and have made their mortgage repayments since then on time.

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The final part of our Property Purchase Completion Guide we take a looka what happens when things dont go as planned.

Completions that don’t happen on the day

There are occasions when, for a number of reasons, completion does not happen on the day. Obviously this can cause serious difficulties however there are a few things that you can do to help mitigate these difficulties and any financial losses:

• Make sure you are available to speak to your lawyer and to the selling agents at all times. Find out what time your lawyer will be finishing for the day and see if there will be anyone staying later who could deal with any last minute issues

• If you are also selling a property do not hand the keys to your purchaser or allow them to move their belongings in unless your lawyer has advised you to do so

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Home Inspector (HI) and Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) training has had claims attached to it of large potential earnings for those qualifying and practicing in this field.

In response to a high levels of comments left on the article (at time of writing nearly a 100 comments) ‘Should I train as a Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) ?’ we felt it would be beneficial to specifically explore the Home Inspector (HI) qualification and its potential further.

The Home Inspector qualification was designed to fulfill the Home Condition Report (HCR) requirement within the Home Information Pack. Initially, it was planned that the HCR would be a mandatory component within the HIP though was in fact made an optional document. Professionals within the industry and none more so than those that qualified as a Home Inspector near its’ inception will tell you that there has been very little to no demand for the HCR due to it being made voluntary.

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The property completion proceedings are further discussed in Part 2 of of our guide; including some of the obstacles that you may encounter when buying your next home.

Events on the day of completion

In the normal course the completion monies will be sent by your lawyer early on the day of completion to the account of the seller’s lawyer. If you are also selling a property then your lawyer will need to receive the funds from your purchaser’s lawyer first which obviously means the monies would be transferred to your seller’s lawyer later in the day.

Your property purchase is considered completed when the seller’s lawyer receives the completion monies and when the seller vacates the property. As the lawyers cannot control what time the funds will reach their destinations there is no guarantee as to what time completion will take place. However, generally  it will be around lunchtime.

The contract will incorporate a latest time for completion. This will either be as per the standard conditions of sale, in which it will be 2pm, or it may be varied. It is very rare that it will be later than 2pm but it is quite common for it to be earlier, perhaps 1pm or even as early as 12. If the matter has not completed by this latest time then the party who has caused the delay in breach of the contract (see below).

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Property completion is the day that you get the keys to your new property and that the money is paid over to the seller’s lawyer. The date will have been agreed between you and the home seller prior to exchange of contracts and will be a fixed date on which both you and the property seller are contractually bound to complete. Over the next week we will be publishing our 3 part guide to Property Completion.

Agreeing a completion date

Before your lawyer exchanges the contract you will be asked for a completion date. There will usually be at least one week between exchange and completion to allow time for the mortgage funds to be ordered from your lender and final searches to be completed (though this can often be done quicker if required) and it must be a weekday but other than that you and your seller are free to agree a date that suits you both.

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