The Government has also announced new measures to tackle anti-social behaviour for people living in social housing.  This includes:

• ensuring tenants are supported to challenge landlords, councils and the police where they are failing or not acting quickly enough;
  
  
• a new housing anti-social behaviour action squad to work with landlords on the ground to spread and embed good practice;
  
  
• new guidance for social landlords to provide them with a detailed understanding of how to use their powers effectively; &
  
  
• a revised, Respect Standard for Housing Management, on tackling anti-social behaviour, which will be become binding on social landlords for the first time.

Where necessary industry regulator Tenant Services Authority will be able to use new enforcement powers to ensure that tenants get a good service.  These can include issuing enforcement notices or even transferring the management of properties to another provider.  In addition, housing associations can face fines or be forced to pay compensation to their tenants.

The Government has announced a planning system overhaul to help cut carbon emissions.

The Department for Communities and Local Government wants to encourage homeowners, developers and businesses to install their own on-site wind turbines and air source heat pumps by dispensing with the need for planning permission. 

The new rules would also apply to councils and electric car drivers who want to install electric car charger points on streets and in car parks.

Housing Minister John Healey has announced increased protection for 8 million tenants in social housing.  From 1st April next year, the rights of tenants in council or housing association homes will be enforced by a new regulator, the Tenant Services Authority.

Over the past twelve years, the Government has installed over 700,000 new kitchens, 525,000 new bathrooms and over 1 million new central heating systems through the Decent Homes Programme. 

Healey wants to keep up the momentum and has directed the Tenant Services Authority to draft national housing standards based on what tenants say matter most to them, including repairs, maintenance, and anti-social behaviour.

[Continued from Home Information Packs: Part 4]

More on optional documents: (1) home condition reports; (2) legal summary; (3) home contents forms; (4) searches; & (5) guarantees and warranties

1. Home condition report

A Home Condition Report contains information about the physical condition of a property, which sellers, buyers and lenders will be able to rely on legally as an accurate report.  It is similar to a Homebuyer Survey and lets the seller and buyer be aware of any works or repairs that are needed to the property.

The report:

• must be carried out by a certified Home Inspector;
  
  
• must be written in plain English and not include technical jargon;
  
  
• gives you comprehensive information on work or repairs needed to the property, reducing the chance of nasty surprises later on.

Optional documents (continued)

15.  Additional relevant information regarding:

• Energy performance, environmental impact or sustainability;
  
  
• Potential or actual environmental hazards that might affect the property or its occupants;
  
  
• Price at which the property is available for sale or was previously sold;
  
  
• Length of time the property has been available for sale either generally or through a particular person;
  
  
• Location or address;
  
  
• Aspect, view, outlook or environment;
  
  
• Proximity and identity of local services, facilities or amenities;
  
  
• Welsh speaking communities in the local area;
  
  
• Use of the Welsh language;
  
  
• Property's contents, fixtures or fittings;
  
  
• History of the property, including age, ownership or use of the property or land on which it is or will be situated;
  
  
• Tenure or estate;
  

Optional documents (continued)

12.  If the property includes commonhold property:

• Commonhold community statement;
  
  
• Information about the rights or obligations of the unit-holder under the commonhold community statement or otherwise, including whether the unit-holder has complied with such obligations;
  
  
• Information about the rights or obligations of the commonhold association under the commonhold community statement or otherwise, including whether it has complied with such obligations;
  
  
• Information about the commonhold association and any information that might affect the unit-holder's relationship with it;
  
  
• Information about any agent of the commonhold association or other manager of the property and any information that might affect the unit-holder's relationship with such persons;
  
  
• Information about the membership of the commonhold association;
  
  
• Information about the status or memorandum and articles of association of any company related to the management of the property or the commonhold;
  
  
• Information about any commonhold assessment payable for the property, including whether payments for such assessment are outstanding;
  
  
• Information about any reserve fund levy relating to the property or the commonhold, including whether payments for such levies are outstanding;
  
  
• Information about any planned or recent works relating to the property or the commonhold;
  
  
• Information about the responsibility for insuring the property or the commonhold, including the terms of such insurance and whether payments relating to it are outstanding; &
  
  
• Information about any lease or licence relating to the property.

[Continued from Home Information Packs: Part 3]

Optional documents

In addition to the compulsory documents listed in Part 1, a seller may include the following documents in the Home Information Pack:

[Continued from Home Information Packs: Part 2]

Compulsory documents (continued)

6. Evidence of title documents

- For registered property

If the property is registered, certain documents that are available on request from the Land Registry must be included in the Home Information Pack.  These provide an up-to-date official record of who owns the land, and consist of:

• official copies of the individual register (made up of a property register, proprietorship register and, typically, a charges register); &

• an official copy of the title plan.

In the case of the sale of a commonhold interest, official copies of the register and title plan should be produced for both the unit and common parts.

- Unregistered land

For sales of unregistered land, the Home Information Pack must include copies of a certificate of an official search of the index map (from the Land Registry).  Also, it must have the documents that the seller intends to rely on to provide evidence of title to the property and the right to sell it.

[Continued from Home Information Packs: Part 1]

Compulsory documents (continued)

1. Home Information Pack Index

The Index lists the contents of the Home Information Pack and provides a checklist for sellers, buyers, estate agents and enforcement authorities.

It should also note any required documents that are missing, give the reason they're missing, and list what steps are being taken to get them.

The Index should be updated whenever documents are added to or removed from the Pack.

** Download a Sample Home Information Pack Index from the Department of Communities and Local Government.

2. Energy Performance Certificate / Predicted Energy Assessment

Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) give home owners, tenants and buyers information on the energy efficiency of their property, using a scale of A to G (where 'A' is the most efficient and 'G' is the least efficient).

Home Information Packs for new homes sold 'off-plan' (i.e., before they are built) will need to include a Predicted Energy Assessment (PEA).  But the PEA should be replaced by an Energy Performance Certificate when construction of the property is complete.

Introduction to Home Information Packs

Under the Housing Act 2004, sellers of homes with three bedrooms or more in England and Wales must give potential buyers Home Information Packs (a.k.a. 'Seller Packs').

Home Information Packs first became mandatory in 2007.  The Government introduced them to: (1) give buyers property information upfront before they incur costs; (2) reduce the number of aborted sales, gazumping and gazundering; and (3) help reduce delays and wasted time for sellers.

The Home Information Packs should not include any marketing or advertising material.  They should only contain the "compulsory" documents listed below and, at the seller's discretion, certain other "optional" items discussed in Part 4. 

Costs of equity release

Administrative costs

The administration costs are usually between £300 and £600 and cover completion & application fees.  Sometimes these fees are refunded by the lender / reversion company.  Borrowers should ask about this & also about any future costs they would have to pay if they wanted to increase the size of their loan.

Legal fees

Again, these should be somewhere between £300 and £600.  Borrowers should ask their solicitor for a fees breakdown.  You can be matched with a solicitor in your area for free via solicitor matching services.

In Part 2, we looked at lifetime mortgages.  We'll now take a look at another type of equity release scheme - home reversion plans.

Home reversion plans

With a home reversion plan, a property owner agrees to sell all or part of their property for an agreed amount; they then receive the money as a lump sum, as income, or both.

The money paid under a home reversion plan, however, never reflects the full market value of the property.  This is because whoever buys it will not get their money back until the vendor dies or moves out.

As noted in Part 1, there are two main types of equity release product: lifetime mortgages and home reversion plans.  This blog discusses lifetime mortgages.  (Read Equity Release: Everything You Need To Know: Part 3 to learn about home reversion.)

Lifetime mortgages

There are two main types of lifetime mortgage:

(1) Interest-only mortgages

Here, borrowers receive a lump sum secured against the value of their property.  They pay monthly interest on the loan & can pay it off if ever they decide to sell the property.

The interest rate may be fixed or variable.  But if it is variable, and the borrower's pension or other source of income is fixed, they will find it more difficult to meet their repayments if interest rates rise.

To avoid this problem, most borrowers invest the money they borrow, often in an income annuity.  They use the income to pay the interest on the loan, and what is left over is theirs to spend.  But because annuity rates are low and depend on your age, this type of loan is really only suitable for very elderly property owners.

What is equity release?

Equity means different things to different people.  In general parlance, it simply means "fairness."  While lawyers think of equity as a set of principles used to mitigate the strict interpretation and application of the common law.  And in showbiz, Equity is the name of the actors' union.

In conveyancing, equity represents the difference between the value of your mortgage and the value of your property.  Where the value of your mortgage is higher than the value of your property, you're in negative equity - for people in this position, equity release simply isn't an option.  But if the value of your property significantly outweighs the value of your mortgage, or you've already paid off your mortgage, equity release is definitely worth considering.

Equity release allows you to unlock the value of your property, without having to move home.  It can provide a lump sum or a regular income, or both.  The release of money can be used in any number of ways and to decrease the value of your estate for inheritance tax purposes.