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Today's Headlines:

House prices fall or rise (take your pick)
4 comments
House prices went up slightly – by 0.4% – in July, the Land Registry has reported. It

Knight Frank stay quiet after conman is jailed
9 comments
A tenant who faked his identity when renting through Knight Frank has been jailed for three

Rich overseas buyers keep prime London market aloft
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Chinese buyers are expected to replace Russian investors as major players in the prime central London

Moving occasion: today's the day!
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The most popular moving date is today, September 1, the Post Office has revealed. The two next

Prospective first-time buyers sink to new low
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The proportion of buyers expecting to buy for the first time in the next 12 months

Housing market 'edging towards double dip' claim
2 comments
Net lending plummeted in July to the second lowest monthly figure since records began in 1993,

Henry Pryor Blog
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Welcome to a new monthly blog by Henry Pryor, estate agent turned entrepreneur, inventor and expert

Rightmove profits climb 39% as more agents sign up
14 comments
A rise in the number of agents and an overall willingness to pay more to Rightmove

Portal creates new 'check out your competition' stats
1 comments
Property portal Home has created some new statistic pages on its site which we reckon will

Six in ten mortgages are now for house purchase
2 comments
The proportion of mortgages being taken out for purchases, as opposed to remortgages, is at its

News Story

Home Inspectors trade body closes down

Wednesday 26th November 2008

The National Association of Registered Home Inspectors has closed.

Launched in January 2006, NARHI aimed to be the trade body for Home Inspectors but was caught out when the Government U-turned and decided to drop Home Condition Reports as a mandatory element of Home Information Packs.

Although the Government said at the time that it would make HCRs mandatory if there was insufficient voluntary take-up, it has always failed to do so and now appears to have ruled out any idea of a comeback for HCRs.

Hugh Dunsmore-Hardy, a former chief executive of the NAEA, was the chairman of NARHI which this week admitted its frustrations after months of lobbying failed.

It said that supporters had always perceived HCRs as the most useful component of HIPs and that even recent research for CLG had noted that “most buyers and sellers said that the inclusion of the HCR would vastly improve perceptions of the HIP overall”.

NARHI also failed to recruit members, admitting that many who had spent time and considerable personal expense in undertaking the training to become Home Inspectors had either moved on or pursued careers as energy assessors.

Yesterday, NARHI said that Energy Performance Certificates were fine, but only as part of a more extensive report on the property: if the property itself was in poor condition, then energy savings recommendations “may well prove a waste of time and money”.

NARHI has now conceded defeat on HCRs. A board statement said: “With a housing market in crisis, together with the number of ministerial changes, hopes for a renewed commitment to a compulsory HCR are fading.

“The NARHI board remains convinced that at some point in the future a single condition report will become mandatory, but time has run its course as far as NARHI is concerned.”

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Posted By Rich on Thursday 27th November 2008 10:47:19

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Funny how the govt. makes saving people 13p on vat seem like a big deal. If you want to sell your house they'll wack you for £250.00.

What a joke.

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Posted By secret surveyor on Wednesday 26th November 2008 03:33:17

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One in the eye for firms hoping to make a fortune out of a misled government policy which without the present state of affairs in the market would have wrecked the housing market for many years - we would have all been the poorer, good riddance.

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Editorial Contact Details - Rosalind Renshaw | rosalind.renshaw@estateagenttoday.co.uk | 01252 843 566.