November 2012

The clocks have changed, nights are drawing in and we have had some early large snowfalls around parts of the country. Christmas ads are already on the TV. Winter is approaching. 

Construction and housing markets underpin the economy so it is disappointing to see that UK construction activity fell 13.1% in September from a year ago, as the sector's downturn steepened, Office for National Statistics figures have shown.

The month saw further big drops in new building by the commercial and public sectors (excluding infrastructure projects), both of which were down by a fifth from a year ago.House building saw a 5% bounce in the month but remains 12% below a year ago.

Further, we say goodbye to Comet who appointed Administrators on 2nd November.

Focus On.......Property Visits

We are often asked by our clients to visit a property and provide information relating to it.Typically our clients - banks, solicitors, landlords - ask us to provide a range of information and the purpose of our visit could be to find out any manner of detail. For instance, our clients may ask us to :

1. Confirm the details on an Ordnance Survey Map 
2. Report on its condition 
3. Confirm what the property is used for 
4. Find out who is living/working there (as opposed to tracing somebody) 
5. Advise them what is actually on the site 
6. Ascertain if the property has been divided into flats 
7. Confirm if it is owner occupied or if it has been let/sublet
8. Provide an up to date valuation

An Open and Shut Case

One of our solicitor clients asked us to attend at a property that they had repossessed using another agent. The property was advertised for sale and the estate agent had visited to make sure everything was okay. He found that his keys would not give him access.It seemed that the doors may have been screwed shut from the inside.The curtains were closed but he thought he saw them "twitch". We were asked to visit and find out what was going on.

On attending at the address we had a look around the front of the property and whilst the curtains were indeed closed, we saw that one of the lower floor windows was closed to but not shut properly or locked. On opening the window and the curtains we found that the living room was full of someone's personal possessions.

We then spoke to a neighbour, who was not aware of the repossession, and told us that the former occupant was still living there. She gave us access through a shared locked gate to the rear we saw that one of the windows had been broken. He had therefore broken back into his former property and was coming and going through the front window, while telling our client he was having to live at a local hotel.

 

London House News

We have held a number of follow up interviews from the NEC Franchise Show last month and are pleased to say that discussions are progressing and deposit cheques being received from prospective Franchise Owners. We have set some training dates for later this month.  We have also held our Franchise Owners' Conference at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. The event gets bigger and better each year and is a great opportunity for our nationwide team to get together and share best practices as well as catch up with friends and colleagues. Our very special thanks go to not only our Franchise Owners but also our guest speakers from Franchise Development Services, UK Global, Chartis, The Federation of Small Businesses and The Martin Cliffe Practice.

You asked us

"The Council of Mortgage Lenders have released figures showing that the number of repossessions has fallen. Nice to see some positive news!" 

Indeed, as recently reported by The BBC, the number of homes being repossessed has fallen to a five year low. The CML reported that there were 8,200 repossessions during the third quarter of 2012 which is the lowest quarterly figure since 2007. 

There are, though, some underlying concerns. Whilst the number of borrowers in arrears is stable at 159,100 and the number of repossessions is falling, this is reflective of record low interest rates and lenders showing restraint with those borrowers in difficulty. Lenders have been under pressure not to repossess properties unless it is genuinely a last resort; they also have to jump through many hoops to successfully obtain Court permission to seize a borrower's home.  

Long term arrears have risen but Banks won't be able to go on absorbing arrears into their balance sheets indefinitely, and they also have a duty of care to ensure borrowers don't build up too much debt by allowing them to stay in a property if this is unsustainable.