April 19th, 2010
A large gathering of senior citizens enjoyed a lively annual conference of the Scottish Pensions Associating in Edinburgh on the 15th of April. George Henderson, OBE chaired the conference which was the seventy third in the Association’s history. Keynote speakers were Margo MacDonald MSP, Justin Glass from the Glasgow Old People’s Welfare Association and David Borrowman from Caesar and Howie.
A theme of all the speeches was the lack of publicity given to many of the benefits available, as of right to senior citizens. The speakers emphasised that this resulted in many benefits readily available not being taken up through lack of knowledge in the senior citizens community. Justin Glass highlighted in particular the lack of take up by senior citizens of Attendance Allowance, a completely non means tested benefit which has transformed the lives of many older folk. Justin forcefully made the point that this benefit was still not claimed by many senior citizens who were clearly entitled to receive it. David Borrowman made a similar point, advising the audience of the generous legal aid available to pensioners in Scotland and yet not known to many. David pointed out to the audience that Wills, Powers of Attorney and Living Wills could all be completed under legal aid and that according to the Scottish Legal Aid Board probably 80% of pensioners would qualify for financial help in preparing them.
Margo MacDonald delighted the audience with an interesting speech, in which she mischievously passed on some of her inside knowledge of leading politicians and the running of the current election campaign.
George Henderson OBE, called on all present to support the Pensioners Manifesto of the National Pensioners Convention and urged delegates to challenge all candidates in the election on the issues contained in the manifesto.
The gathering stimulated some spirited discussion on the issues affecting older people and many of the delegates left the conference resolved to make campaigning politicians aware of their views.
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April 12th, 2010
Is the view of Caesar and Howie family law expert Martin Monaghan, who is frustrated by the lack of publicity, given to this aspect of the Scottish legal aid system.
“Where a family member becomes incapacitated, many families have to have someone appointed as guardian to look after the affairs of the incapacitated person. It is not widely known that The Scottish Legal Aid system is very generous when it comes to granting legal aid for guardianships. The vast majority of persons in need of guardianship are entitled to free legal aid and if a welfare appointment is sought at the same time, this is without any financial test or qualification. This legal aid will pay for all of the costs incurred in applying for guardianship and intervention to deal with the welfare, assets and income of the person who is incapacitated.
Whilst I think that is a great system and one we should be proud of in this county, I think not enough people know about this entitlement. Many thousands of pounds can be saved by using a solicitor geared up for legal aid for a guardianship action. What’s even better is that there is virtually no delay in legal aid being granted in these cases – so no time is lost”.
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April 12th, 2010
Sarah Patrick, partner at Caesar and Howie poses four questions she feels 
Scottish families should be able to answer. The questions are First, How much does residential care cost in Scotland? Second, Could you afford to pay for a family member going into care? Third, How many houses are sold each year to pay for care costs? Fourth, Is there any way of avoiding care costs?
Sadly, Sarah thinks many Scots families do not know the answer to these questions – nor do they even think about them. “Actually the answers are quite scary” says Sarah. “Residential care costs can exceed £600 per week and to be honest I do not think many families can afford to pay for that without selling assets. In fact it is estimated that thousands of houses are sold in the UK each year which I think should be a worry for families. But, the good news is in answer to the fourth question, there is at the moment a method available which has a good chance of stopping houses being sold to pay for care costs. It is called a Discretionary Family Trust and we are finding that once families apply their minds to this difficult subject more and more are seeking to mitigate the effects of having to pay for care. These trusts are therefore becoming more common. Setting up a family trust early – before care costs are being incurred is what needs to be done. I would urge all families with elderly members to think about this subject and plan for the future”.
For a completely free consultation on the legal issues about care costs please telephone o845 855 3300
And ask for Sarah, Lesley or Martin
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March 24th, 2010
Alastair Darling announced a change in stamp duty charged on house purchases in his last pre-election budget. The changes are not actually a cut but a change in the rates – removing stamp duty for first time buyers buying up to £250,000 but increasing the rates for purchases over £1m.
In practice for Scotland, however, this is effectively a cut for most if not all first time buyers. But will this change stimulate a pretty subdued market?
Property professionals seem mostly to feel the change may help somewhat.
“In the property market the last two years have been full of mostly bad news – so anything positive is a bit of a help. Certainly a big cost will be removed for many first time buyers – and that can only be good” says Sandy Macfarlane, mortgage broker at Caesar and Howie. “But I’d like to see the Scottish government letting us know how much money they are going to make available under the Lift scheme this year. That did help a lot of my clients last year and I hope it will do so again this year. On balance if Lift monies come available again from April – with the stamp duty cut now also in place – there should be more activity seen in the first time buyer sector.”
This view is confirmed by Sebastian Kedziora – who works with Caesar and Howie’s many Polish clients buying houses in Scotland and indeed in the UK. “A large number of would be Polish buyers didn’t get the loans they wanted under Lift last year – because of the rationing of funds. If new tranches of money become available under Lift this year I predict many more Poles will be buying houses in Scotland.”
See www.liftmortgage.co.uk
See www.kupdom.co.uk
Tags: Stamp Duty
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February 17th, 2010
Most of us tend to feel we are “indestructible” and we tend not to plan ahead for adverse life events. But thinking “It will never happen to me” isn’t a good reason for not taking basic steps to protect families and assets against adverse events occurring.
One issue which is affecting more and more families is the cost of residential care in old age. Care costs can come in at around £600 per week nowadays. Now that might represent extremely good value in that the care home resident is being fed, kept warm and being well looked after. All the costs of living at home have gone, of course, and that has to be borne in mind.
Still it is true that good value or not these costs are substantial – probably more than the cost of sending someone to an expensive boarding school. Not many of us could afford to send a family member to a boarding school – it would just be a non – starter financially. However, many families like it or not will have to face the fact that a family member may have to go into care and the money for that will have to come from somewhere.
That “somewhere “is often the property of the resident going into care and for many that means the person’s house. It is estimated that thousands of homes are sold to pay care home costs every year.
It seems a great pity that every year many families run into a care costs nightmare when with some forward planning this can be avoided. One method which can sometimes avoid a home being sold to pay for care costs is for the house to be placed in a Trust – variously called a Family Trust or Discretionary Trust or Asset Protection Trust. There are various potential advantages to a property being put into trust, and provided such a trust is not solely set up just to avoid care costs it is likely to work in doing just that.
The word “trust” sometimes scares people but the concept is actually quite simple. Basically the ownership of assets is vested in a group of people, “the trustees”, who hold and administer property and assets for “beneficiaries” under the trust.
One effect of these family trusts is that the assets in the trust should not be taken into account when a person is assessed for how much he or she must pay towards care costs. Consequently if someone has successfully put their house in a family trust it will not be sold to pay for care costs. Apart from trusts, depending on family circumstances there are other options also which may do the trick in avoiding care costs. There are lots of issues to be dealt with carefully here and it is vital that advice is taken.
Forward planning is required and decisions on a family trust or other options must be taken long before care costs are in contemplation. It is odd that, with care costs being so devastatingly expensive for most families and with illness and infirmity hitting not just the wealthy, more families do not take early steps to deal with the care costs issue.
Caesar and Howie offer a free consultation on care costs, discretionary trusts, and other relevant issues. Simply telephone 01506 815900 and ask to speak to Sarah Patrick or Ivor Klayman.
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January 25th, 2010
At the start of each year it is fashionable for commentators to predict the trend they expect to see in the housing market. Already some agents seem to be suggesting a significant improvement in the market. Of course it depends on what basis you judge a market. Much of the property press seem to be obsessed by the price of residential housing and that if people have to spend more to buy a house in Scotland in 2010 than in 2009 then this is the market “improving”.
At Caesar and Howie we do not really subscribe to that view. First and foremost houses are for families to live in not simply investments. We feel the number of successful transactions in the market is a much better indication of the health of the market rather than increasing prices. Consequently, whilst it does seem that the house price falls of the last two years are over – we do not think that the market is showing much sign of returning to good health. Good health for us is many buyers and sellers doing deals and in truth volumes remain very slim compared with the highs of 2007. Register House has not yet published final figures but sales in 2009 will probably come in around 67,000 or so compared with 155,000 in 2007.
The cost of Home Reports has clearly chased many sellers away from the market with listings for sale down all over the country since this policy was introduced by the Scottish Government.
We cannot see the sentiment of sellers changing much this year, and whilst there is still a strong desire to own property in Scotland, mortgage deals are still generally dependent on good deposits being available – and not all buyers can manage that.
So we believe the market will remain subdued in 2010. This means sellers have to be realistic on price, and to be patient, to achieve sales in 2010. Selling your house first before purchasing is the safest course to take – even being prepared to move into temporary accommodation between dates of entry. But buyers who had sold and had. “money in the bank” so to speak were able to press for a good deal buying houses in 2009 and we believe it will be the same this year.
We may be coming out of recession but many still fear for their jobs. We think until it is absolutely clear that the economy has turned round and individuals and families become more confident the number of house transactions is likely to stay modest. We doubt if house prices will increase across the board – although there may be the odd “city centre” hot spot. That does not mean that individuals cannot trade successfully in the market. But careful thinking, good professional advice and prudent decision making will be the order of the day to make this market work for you.
Tags: housing market
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January 21st, 2010
Caesar & Howie have been invited to join the Equity Release Solicitors Alliance (ERSA) which is a group of specialist legal firms involved in equity release. The aims of ERSA are to improve the knowledge and understanding of equity release within the market place and to provide impartial specialist legal advice to homeowners considering taking out Equity Release plans.
Equity Release Partner Carmen MacIver comments “we were delighted to receive the invitation to join ERSA – effectively that organisation provides a Kite Mark for quality of service in this particular area of work. That’s what we aim to do for our Equity Release clients – give a top quality fast service which is impartial and expert. To be the first firm in Scotland to be asked to join up is pretty special too”.
Like other ERSA members Caesar & Howie have invested significantly in building up the firm’s capability in Equity Release. “We have been working on our quality of service for nearly three years now ”states Managing Partner David Borrowman“ and this involves creating top quality computer systems which enable us to process work quickly – as well as ensuring staff are well trained and are kept up to date with all developments in Equity Release. This is a growth area and we are glad we have committed resources to it. But it is an enjoyable sector to work in also – releasing money from their house makes life very much happier for many clients and it is satisfying to be working for them in the Equity Release process”.
Tags: Equity Release
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December 8th, 2009
According to the Scottish Executive and Consumer groups Home Reports were intended to revolutionise the Scottish house market for the better. Ignoring the results of its own failed trial, the Executive pushed ahead against reasoned opposition and sensible requests for delay, and made the commissioning of a Home Report compulsory on domestic property sales from 1st December 2008. The results have been spectacular.
- GSPC is the premier house selling organisation in the West. Their listings dropped by 80% in the month after the introduction of Home Reports. They have remained resolutely at about 50% of 2008 levels ever since.
- ESPC is the premier house selling organisation in the East. Their registrations dropped by 80% immediately after the introduction of Home Reports and are cumulatively down about 52% in 2009 compared with 2008.
- Solicitor Property Centres and Estate Agencies across the country have recorded similar figures.
- House sales recorded in the Land Register dropped dramatically in January 2009 by 64 % from the 2008 figure.
- House sales recorded in the Land Register to end October 2009, the last date on which figures are available, are running at 5503 per month compared with 8571 per month in 2008. That is a massive fall of about 36%. And remember 2009 sales will have been artificially inflated from “Normal” by purchases under the Lift scheme and by the stamp duty holiday.
On any logical view of the house market and these figures it is clear that Home Reports have had a significant deleterious effect. If the rules of a market change on a particular date and from that date activity levels collapse I think it fair and reasonable to conclude that the rule change has affected activity. Our own experience in Caesar and Howie on volumes is typical and the chaos caused by this legislation is reflected in our daily work.
- Our listings halved in number from precisely the date of the introduction of Home Reports and have not yet recovered.
- Multiple surveys had been unknown in our firm for years until the introduction of Home Reports – now we are aware of them happening all the time – and who pays for them is often a cause of dispute.
- House Purchase and Sale transactions are taking longer and are usually more expensive for both buyer and seller.
- Many sales clients have complained bitterly to us about the cost of Home Reports, many buyers do not trust the sellers Home Report and lenders frequently reject the Home Report and require their own survey to be done.
- Potential sales clients have simply said they would rather not sell than meet the cost of a home report in a slow market.
- Sellers and buyers alike treat Energy Performance Certificates (part of the Home Report) with open contempt and see them as worthless.
- In many Home Reports, some, and even most of the questions in the Property Questionnaire section are answered “don’t know”.
- Sellers in financial difficulty who cannot get credit are selling “off market” often well under valuation because they cannot afford the Home Report and they therefore cannot put their house on the market.
In the face of our experiences and the figures I have quoted I am at a loss to see how any objective view of Home Reports could fail to confirm that they actually hinder the house market not help it. We have had a recession since early 2008 and yet the largest falls in listings and sales have come since the introduction of Home Reports – most markedly so. Many commentators predicted aspirational sellers (in our view the majority of sellers) would leave the market if it became too expensive to sell – and they have done just that, in their thousands. Every aspirational seller is also an aspirational buyer – which is why chasing this group from the market by ratcheting up the price of entering the market was such a daft policy decision. Indeed I wrote to Alex Neil, the Housing and Communities Minister, and all MSP’s advising that Home Reports would decimate the market and cause redundancies throughout the property and mortgage sector as well as in areas where trade relies on house transactions such as furniture shops, carpet shops etc. Such closures and redundancies throughout Scotland are now well documented.
As an aside, it seems pretty remarkable to me that a policy introduced to stop the non-existent problem of multiple surveys can actually cause multiple surveys and still be declared to be a success by our Housing and Communities Minister. If this mess is a success what on earth would constitute failure?
Sadly Home Reports were conceived in a Fantasy Land peopled by politicians, consumer “champions” and surveyors, with a sprinkling of a few non-representative lawyers. In Fantasy Land the 250,000 or so Scots who bought 155,241 houses in 2007 (and similar numbers in the years before that) were all hapless victims, recklessly spending their hard earned money on houses they knew absolutely nothing about. All these unfortunates apparently quite unwittingly bought “pigs in pokes” which might ruin their lives forever. This upset the consumer organisations and politicians who always know much better than the actual buyers themselves how and in what way they should spend their money. Oh and of course, these silly buyers were racking up about 5 survey fees a purchase as well. Of course in Fantasy Land it was all just that – pure fantasy.
Without wishing to be offensive I see from a recent press release that the proponents of Home Reports remain happily resident in Fantasy Land congratulating themselves on how they have fixed the house market – which they surely have.
Home Reports have “benefited buyers and sellers over the last 12 months” – The RICS.
“Which is delighted the new system is working well” – Which.
“It’s good news for everyone” - Alex Neil Housing and Communities Minister.
Well it must be great to live in Fantasy Land, where propaganda trumps facts. For the rest us left behind, we have to live with the gritty realities of life, one of them being the worst property market in living memory, a market brought to its knees by compulsory Home Reports.
There is an easy fix to this shambles. Just remove the compulsory nature of Home Reports – get rid of the £500 civil fine for selling without one – so sellers can freely decide whether to commission a Home Report or not. Then we will soon see who is right in this debate – because members of the public will decide for themselves whether Home Reports are a good thing worth paying for or whether they are not.
Should anyone in Government, the RICS, Which, or Consumer Focus Scotland read this article I hope someone will publish their response.
To save the hard pressed the bother of having to read it – I can tell you now what it will be.
“It wisnae us – it wis the recession”. How convenient. At all costs the Home Report Project must be saved irrespective of fact, logic, job losses, or the economic damage it has done. Just wait and see.
Tags: Home Reports, housing market
Posted in Conveyancing, Estate Agency | 2 Comments »
December 8th, 2009
Many clients of Kupdom have been buying houses in the Inverness area.
Those buyers will be pleased then to have seen figures from the Lloyds TSB house monitor issued this week. They show that the average price for a house in Inverness and the Highlands and Islands is £168,815. Also the price shows a healthy growth of 6.9 % from the same period last year.
Not all parts of Scotland have experienced figures like that with Glasgow and Edinburgh still showing price falls.
Aberdeen showed the highest prices rises – averaging 13% – but the North now lies third behind Edinburgh and Aberdeen in the house price league.
Many Poles buying houses in Scotland have been drawn to Inverness and the North with Inverness now experience good population growth.
“I am not surprised at the figures” says Sebastian Kedziora from Kupdom. “A lot of our clients appreciate the beauty of the North and many have found jobs perhaps a little more easy to come by than in some parts of Scotland. It looks like they have been making a good investment buying there also – so I expect the Polish community in Inverness to continue to expand”
Tags: Buy a house in Scotland, House Prices
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December 1st, 2009
I suppose, I should not be surprised at the latest RICS attempt to suggest Home Reports are a great thing for the Scottish house market. After all, some parties have suggested surveyors are making a killing to the tune of £36 million a year out of Home Reports and Energy Performance Certificates – but it is not for me to comment on that since I do not know the figures. I think it fair, however, to point out that surveyors do not generally carry out Estate Agency or conveyancing and therefore their experience in the house market is limited to just one part of the sales process.
What I find pretty disquieting is that the RICS simply interview their own members, who clearly have a financial interest in Home Reports continuing, and then they present to the unsuspecting public their “findings” as “research”. Then the RICS public relations staff pull in some quotes from sponsors of the legislation who are only too desperate to see some good PR for this legislation whether or not it fits in with the facts.
We deserve better than that but we are not going to get it from the RICS, politicians or consumer groups.
Here is some information I have gathered from our experience at Caesar and Howie since Home Reports became compulsory on the 1st December 2008. Unlike the RICS I would not dream of claiming this to have the title of “research”. But as a collection of experiences it may be of interest to some.
- House sales in Scotland averaged 8571 per month throughout 2008 when the recession was at its height and mortgages were desperately difficult to get.
- Various government initiatives including reduced stamp duty and £61m of Lift mortgage finance were available for most of 2009, mortgages generally were easier to come by also, yet house sales slumped to a mere 5347 per month from January to September 2009 (the last date on which Land Register figures are available).
- Our own listings at Caesar and Howie halved in number from precisely the date of the introduction of Home Reports and have never recovered.
- Multiple surveys had been unknown in our firm for years until the introduction of Home Reports – now we are aware of them happening all the time – and who pays for them is often a cause of dispute.
- House Purchase and Sale transactions are taking longer and are usually more expensive for both buyer and seller because of the Home Report and related fees.
- Many sales clients have complained bitterly to us about the cost of Home Reports, many buyers do not trust them and lenders frequently reject them.
- Potential sales clients have simply said they would rather not sell than meet the cost of a home report when a sale might be difficult..
- Sellers and buyers alike treat Energy Performance Certificates with open contempt and see them as worthless.
- In many Home Reports some and even most of the questions in the Property Questionnaire are answered “don’t know”.
- Hard up sellers are selling off market at reduced prices because they can’t afford the Home Report and can’t get credit.
I could go on a lot longer but it does get a bit boring. However in the face of our experiences I am at a loss to see how any objective view of Home Reports could fail to confirm that they actually hinder the house market not help it. We have had a recession since early 2008 and yet the largest falls in listings and sales have come since the introduction of Home Reports – most markedly so. Many predicted aspirational sellers (in our view the majority of sellers) would leave the market if it became too expensive to sell – and they have done just that in their thousands.
As an aside, it seems pretty remarkable to me that a policy introduced to stop the non existent problem of multiple surveys can actually cause multiple surveys and still be declared to be a success by our Housing and Communities Minister. If this mess is a success what on earth would constitute failure?
There is an easy fix to this shambles. Just remove the compulsory nature of Home Reports – get rid of the civil fine for selling without one – so the public can freely decide whether to commission a Home Report or not. Then we will soon see who is right in this debate – because the public will decide whether Home Reports are a good thing worth paying for or whether they are not.
Posted in Conveyancing, Estate Agency | 2 Comments »
A large gathering of senior citizens enjoyed a lively annual conference of the Scottish Pensions Associating in Edinburgh on the 15th of April. George Henderson, OBE chaired the conference which was the seventy third in the Association’s history. Keynote speakers were Margo MacDonald MSP, Justin Glass from the Glasgow Old People’s Welfare Association and David Borrowman from Caesar and Howie.
