More Information

A brief description of service

Home Condition report (HCR)
This is a very cost effective alternative to a Homebuyers Survey and provides a very detailed but easy to understand report (without a valuation) on the condition of your property. This will include an insurance valuation should the property through accident be a total loss. Checks will also be made on the environmental factors to the area and environs of your property including such items as subsidence or flood risks. The report will be supplied by the vendor to any potential buyer or buyers as part of the Home Information Pack. The HCR is a voluntary document, which assists the vendor to sell their property, showing its condition from the outset of marketing. This contains the energy performance certificate (mentioned below) as part of the inspection.

Energy Performance Certificate.
This is the obligatory part of the Home Information Pack required before a property can be placed on the market for sale. This will become part of UK Law in June 07 as part of a European Union Directive on reducing carbon emissions from domestic properties, which currently accounts for 27% of the UK total of carbon pollution.

The Home Condition Report in brief.
Approximately 80% of homebuyers do not have a survey undertaken on their behalf and they unknowingly and incorrectly rely on the mortgage valuation to assure them of the property’s condition. The mortgage valuation is not a survey, merely a valuation carried out on behalf of the mortgage lender. A valuation report will only list items that materially affect the value of the property and may not detail other defects that are of greater significance to the individual purchaser. It is planned that mortgage valuation inspections will become a thing of the past when they become automated and models used to obtain the valuation of the property’s value. This means it will be carried out in an office without even a site visit.

Home Information Packs.
By Law from June 07 every domestic property being sold in England and Wales will have to complete a Home Information Pack. Part of this report will contain the Energy Performance Certificate and as a voluntary document if the sellers wishes, the Home Condition Report. Home information packs can be supplied by any organisation from surveyors, pack providers to estate agents. As a seller you can save yourself some money and do the pack yourself via the Internet or obtain the required documents from the various search operatives etc.

As a seller, why should you have a Home Condition Report?
An HCR is a very detailed but simple to understand inspection report on the condition of your property. If your property is in good condition, the HCR will confirm this fact to all prospective buyers. After all many buyers will not know that insignificant dry shrinkage in plasterwork is just that and not subsidence. Buyers can take the comments of the HCR in mind before viewing your property and thus allay any fears that they have, and may not fully understand, when they view the property. These facts should result in more viewings of your property and therefore a quicker sale and less stress for you to endure.

As a buyer why should I insist on seeing a Home Condition Report?
The purchasing of a property is probably the largest single investment any of us will ever undertake in our lives. Many of you may rely on a valuation report only but this will not detail any potential faults or problems the building may have now.
If you intend to be one of the more pro-active purchasers and want to commission a survey for the property you are buying as well as having an HCR completed on your own sale, then insist on properties you are interested in purchasing having an HCR, after all, its not fair that you are hit with two financial burdens when selling and buying – your own HCR on sale and survey on buying.
Ultimately, we should all ensure that our investment is sound. If the property you are thinking of buying does not have a Home Condition Report, either insists on one being carried out by the seller or we can prepare one on your behalf and provide you with up-to-date information so that you can make an ‘informed’ decision and hopefully make your property buying experience less risky and less stressful

Why should I trust a HCR, after all it has been paid for by the vendor?
All Home Inspectors are regulated and licensed by Government representative bodies. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) in Watford licenses us. They ensure we have a proper complaints procedure, have indemnity, liability insurance. That we act with integrity/honesty to all parties and completes the reports to a high professional standard. If you are not satisfied with the service, you can take the matter further to the BRE. Any practices which fall below standard, then the Home Inspector in danger of losing their licence and livelihood. We are checked on by the BRE at regular intervals to ensure we comply with their practice standards and governance.

HCR’s will contain information on:-
• External condition including structural stability, condition of roof and walls. Condition of wood elements and decorative order.
• Internal condition including walls (dampness), floors, ceilings and roof structure.
• Services – gas, electric, heating, water and drainage.
• Grounds – outbuildings, boundary walls and fences
• An Energy Performance Certificate.
• Health and safety issues dealing with the property i.e. dangerous elements – lack of safety glass, fire escapes and asbestos issues, to name a few.

For more information please contact starinspections@hotmail.co.uk

Best wishes and happy buying or selling,

Terry Bradley and Phil Hewitt (partners).