“John, I don't know what your experience is in the property market, I would suggest very limited. Property prices are rarely over-inflated. Estate agents don't get paid for having over-niflated, non-selling properties on their books. I would suggest a vendor could choose the best HIP pack valuation as they will all be different. As far as Labour changing the law, thats a complete nonsense as it goes against the principles of contract and professional negligence. Sorry, as already stated, this was a Labour con ie a non-job. As regards your views on the economy, you appear to be the only person in the UK that thinks Brown did a good job.”

“John,

I¿m sorry it¿s you who are wearing the rose tinted glasses. When the Conservatives took over from Labour in 1979 it was because Callaghan lost a ¿no confidence motion¿. In other words he had made such a mess of things no-one trusted Labour any more. The British economy was then placed 17th in the world. When the Conservatives finally left in 1997 we had risen to 5th place. If the Conservatives were so wrong why did Labour carry on with their fiscal policies even after they had won? As for things being better under Labour that is just not so. We now have greater levels of illiteracy in schools than we have ever had, and that includes the Victorian period. Deaths from hospital acquired infections are now at their highest level due to the fact that hospitals are now all about targets and ticking boxes. Crime has not fallen, it has risen. What has fallen is reported crime and this has mainly been because people can no longer be bothered to report crime as they know in the majority of cases the police take no action. Of course this is before the idiocy and incompetence of the Labourites left us with the biggest debt in history, and before you go on about it being the fault of the rest of the world, Blair and Brown both had the opportunity to put things right ¿ they failed to do so it¿s their fault, they were in charge. But don¿t worry Blair knew exactly what he was doing by getting out when he did. Hasn¿t he just picked up another £10 million for doing something the other day?
As to the matter in hand my message to Kevin is tough. HIPS were just another government scam for getting people off the dole and for raking in more cash. They weren¿t needed. People forget that HIPS didn¿t last for ever. A vendor could find himself forking out time and time again for a series of these useless reports if his property failed to sell.
Kevin invested his money in a business, the business failed; whether or not his was his fault is irrelevant. Lots of people have their business fail and are bankrupted through no fault of their own. How many gunsmiths, gun dealers and shooting range owners lost everything they had when the Government banned handguns?
I¿m afraid Kevin you fell for the Labour hype about how much money you would be making. Accept this and move on ¿ just like millions of others have had to do.”

“Paul you are missing my point here like, I never said the buyer couldn¿t afford to have multiple surveys for different houses the point is that as a buyer if I was to ask a lender for the money it would only be at this point I would find out there is a problem with the house whether that is structural or it¿s been over priced, whereas with a HIP pack a surveyor has made sure the asking price is not overinflated by the seller or estate agent and that the house is saleable condition, so when the lenders surveyor checks out the house there will be no surprises. So the duplication here is that the next buyer comes along and has to go through the same process only to find out it¿s not fit to be sold and is out of pocket. Where Labour failed here is that they didn¿t change the law to make sure lenders could rely on the first survey. So who is going to create the energy efficiency reports now, each potential buyer?
You seem to be looking back at the last Tory Government through rose tinted glasses, a Government that had us on a rollercoaster of a ride with the boom bust economy they created by fluctuating the interest rate to manipulate votes, and what about that drubbing in the 1997 Elections when the whole country was so fed up with the corruption the lies and the lack of jobs? There was no drubbing for labour in this election. As a Lifelong Lib Dem supporter even I can¿t take away Labours good track record(no government will be perfect they will all make some mistakes, but some make bigger mistakes than others), we have better schools, hospitals and a lower crime rate. What was unfortunate for them was the GLOBAL RECESSION that affected every Government whether they were left or right wing, no matter what policies they had in place it was the greed of the banking system that brought the world¿s economy to near collapse.”

“Home inspections are a good thing, here in the States the buyer has an inspection prior to closing on the home, The buyer also pays for the inspection, this then becomes a negotiating tool, if there are problems the buyer can pull out or re-negotiate the sale price;
Common sense to me, as I would like to know that the home is in satisfactory condition, Mr. Donavan should start advertising to buyers that he can inspect a home and give a report on the condition prior to buying it.
I'm an inspector in Florida, www.pennypropertyinspectors.com Check out the reports and fees on my web site, perhaps there's a potential for a new industry that is not run by Gov;
Who would buy a house? the largest investment you would probably make without having an inspection first most folk when they buy a car go over it with a fine tooth comb then try to negotiate a price, do the same with a house and you may save yourself some angst. Mr. Donavan don't complain, get out there and drive your own destiny. you may be surprised with the response.

Dave Penny”

“John, you are as bad as Gordon Brown for distorting things!! The lender will always insist on their own valuation making HIPs a waste of money. If as someone who wants a mortgage doesn't have enough to stump up for a survey, one wonders whether they could afford a mortgage. What you appear to be blind to is the fact that HIPs duplicated work and costs. Consider that you are selling your house, you need to stump up for a HIP on the house you are selling and will have to stump up for a survey and legals on the new property. It's a plain waste of money.
I don't epect you to understand as for some off the wall reason you think the Tories left the economy in a bad state in 1987. Far from it but they have certainly messesd it up after the last 13 years leaving the Tories to put things right yet again.

By the way, these are non-dom Labour donors:-

Lord Paul ¿ £69,250 in donations to Labour, including £45,000 to Gordon Brown¿s leadership campaign. A close friend of Gordon Brown and appointed to the Privy Council last summer, he has admitted to being ¿non-dom¿.
¿ Lakshmi Mittal - £4.125 million in donations to Labour.
¿ Sir Ronald Cohen - £2.55 million in donations to Labour. Cohen was appointed chair of the Social Investment Taskforce, which was announced by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown.
¿ Sir Christopher Ondaatje - £1.7 million in donations to Labour.
¿ Sir Gulam Noon - £532,826 in donations to Labour.
¿ William Bollinger - £510,725 in donations to Labour.
¿ Mahmoud Khayami - £985,000 in donations to Labour including £5,000 to Hazel Blears¿ deputy leadership campaign. He has helped bankroll two flagship schools, one of which Gordon Brown opened, and was personally thanked for a donation by Tony Blair.
¿ Dr David Potter - £90,000 in a donation to Labour. He has previously delivered a lecture at Downing Street.”

“As a buyer it gives you a good indication of if you should, you get to see more than just pretty pictures of the house, I agree that the lender making people pay for another qualified surveyor is over the top, but without the HIP in place I would ask the lender to lend me the money pay for the surveyor for him to say it's structurally unsound for the lender to then refuse me the mortgage so I'm out of pocket and I get a notch against my credit score, wow what a wonderful system!!
The Tories wrecked the country the last time they were in and they started all over again!!
And yes they are the party for the rich because they won¿t tax the super rich, look at Lord Laidlaw and Lord Ashcroft, both funding the Tories taking titles and not even paying tax in this country, makes me sick to see this ordinary working guy loose his life savings when Cameron and his cronies let these scumbags off with millions of taxes.

And guess who's father in law just got a cushy Job travelling the world at our expense? George Osbourne's!!!”

“John; As Paul asked - perhaps you could explain! Also, the Tories are not the party of the rich. They are the party of those of us who vote for them. Rich Tories? Don't make me laugh. You mean like the Kinnocks, Blair, Harman, et al?”

“John, most people have to take out a mortgage to buy a house. THe lender will instruct the surveyor, you don't get a choice of whcih surveyor to use. The lender will never rely on the valuation in a HIP because if the surveyor messes up, they cannot sue him as they did not instruct him. Same goes for title problems, you cannot sue a solicitor, for example if they missed reporting on a right of way if you did not instruct them. As I said, HIPs are a waste of time. I file to see how the rich benefit from this, perhaps you could explain”

“Paul the duplicated work comes when you are trying to buy a house and have to have your own survey taken, and if you don't like the outcome of the report you move on and pay for another survey, so going back to the old system means that the lawyers and surveyors get richer becasue of the duplication of work!!!

Funny that the tories are the party for the rich and it's the rich that benefit from this!!!”

“HIPs were a classic example of a non-job. Lenders will always insist on their own surveys and the lawyers will do their own searches. This means a significant amount of duplicated work for no reason other than energy certificates. This was just another way of moving money from person A to person B, with no benefit to anyone, to massage unemployment figures which was so typical of the last government.

Whilst I have sympathy for Mr Donovan, I'm glad to see the back of HIPs”