Home Reports have been upon us for three months, against the expressed wishes of 79 percent of the profession. Whilst the conveyancing branch has knuckled down and got on with it, the public at large remain ignorant of the changes that they will not see unless they are already in the market. Leslie Deans tells The Firm that once the impact of  the reports has been fully understood, a change is gonna come.

It beggars belief that at this time of economic difficulty, the Government are foisting this extra expense upon the public, before they can put their property on the market. This is to obtain a report that is of at best, debateable value; debateable, because a number of lenders have indicated that they will not accept it. And even those that will accept it have put time limits on the report. If it is more than twelve weeks old they won’t even consider it.

We have attended seminars and carried out in-house training for our people, so we are very much up to speed in terms of offering and explaining to the public at large precisely what their obligations are, and their costing options. There was no lack of clarity in what we are expected to do. My criticism is in relation to the underlying necessity for the whole thing.

They ran a pilot scheme which was an absolute, unmitigated disaster, and this was over two years ago when the Edinburgh property market was radically stronger than it is at the moment.

Nobody, but nobody wanted it. One person in Edinburgh took it up, out of all the hundreds, indeed thousands of houses that were on the market in Edinburgh. The Government said they would take into account what the public’s view was, and yet repeatedly failed to do so. I never cease to be amazed by Parliamentary arrogance on the part of politicians who think they know better.

They should listen to people that operate the system, day in and day out. We have a system of home ownership buying and selling in this country that is the envy of many. Those aren’t my words. That comes from English agents who have come to see me and compared it to the mess they have south of the border. They say our system makes buying a home a pleasure. I have had that kind of comment many times in my 35 years as a solicitor in property.

We have a great system. It works. We don’t have gazumping or gazundering. We have a sophisticated Land Registration system, we have Letters of Obligation worked out with other members of the legal profession that bridges the gap.

What do the Government do with it? They fuck it about.

The public will become increasingly disgruntled with this. They haven’t had to pay a lot of attention to this until now, because it had been theoretical. In the public’s eye, this has been a spat between solicitors, estate agents and politicians. But it is no longer theoretical. It is hitting them in the pocket. We of course are left to explain to them why they are paying for it. It will become much more of a priority in the public’s mind. I think you will find a lot of people are disgruntled about this.

I would not be surprised if this legislation is scrapped two years down the line.  We will then look back at a spectacular waste of money, and if anyone is looking for the culprit in all of that, look no further than Mr Maxwell, the Minister in Holyrood, who has blatantly ignored the professional advice he has had from all sides. 

In the meantime, the pragmatic side of me knows that we have to get on with it. We have to educate the public, tell them what is expected, get the instructions out, the reports on, make them available to any prospective purchaser. We will fulfil our obligations and provide a highly professional service to our clients, as we have always tried to do.

I thought until about mid-October 2008 that Home Reports would be pulled. But when it became clear that there was no sign of them being pulled, I was told there was no discussion going on in Holyrood about scrapping them. They were not even thinking about it. They have a warped belief that the public thinks this is a great thing. Up until now, the public have been fed this line that it was being done in their interests, and that “bloody lawyers” won’t like it.

The public have been misinformed in a number of areas. Once they have to start putting their hands in their pockets, and they know fairly and squarely who is creating all this expense, then there might be a bit more public feeling about it.

A seller without very much money who wants to sell their house and move into a nursing home will - even with the market being as bad as it is - put her hand in her pocket and pay £600 to get a home report and £250 to place an advert in the ESPC. That’s £850 before her lawyer has charged her a single penny, before you put the house on the market. She might not have that £850. Is the Government telling her she can’t sell her house? Sounds like it.