More Scottish Property News.

Exactly six months since their introduction, the fiercely contested home reports, a combination of a survey, energy evaluation and questionnaire now legally required of anyone selling a property in Scotland, continue to divide opinion.

Of course, with sales currently down almost twothirds on last year and prices dropping nearly 10per cent in just three months, it is difficult to judge the effect of the new system.

No precise figures are available for how many home reports have been prepared since December but the best estimate, from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland (RICS Scotland), is between 20,000 and 25,000. Figures for how many homes have been sold in the same period are not available but 11,800 homes officially registered as sold in Scotland in the first quarter of 2009.

What is clear is that many buyers are still having to pay for surveys.

Many major lenders in Scotland, including Lloyds TSB, HBOS and RBS, accept only home reports prepared by their own panel of surveyors.

The upshot is that a significant proportion of homebuyers will require their own survey report in addition to the home report as sellers cannot predict whether the buyer's lender is on the panel. Some estate agents claim that most offers they receive as a sellers' agent are still subject to survey.

Also, under the current rules, the potential buyer and his advisors are not permitted to enter into a dialogue with the surveyor who carried out the single survey for the seller, as it is deemed a conflict of interest.

The Scottish Government has moved to down play the gap in the system, claiming that over 95per cent of surveys are carried out by firms that are on the lenders' panels.

A spokesman said: "Sellers' agents are well aware of the identity of the firms that are on lenders' panels and carry out this work in Scotland.

"Around 90per cent of sellers are also buyers and will therefore benefit when they purchase their next home."

Costs are certainly a factor. Depending on the size of the property, initial outlay can be between GBP400 and GBP800 and when the marketing costs all sellers are required to pay in advance are thrown in, going to market is an expensive exercise.

One high-profile estate agent, who asked not to be named, recently told The Herald that home reports bore equal culpability to the economic downturn for some of the worst house sales figures in recent times.

The Scottish Law Agents' Society, a voluntary organisation of around 1800 members, has run a concerted campaign against home reports.

Ian Ferguson, spokesman for the society, said delays in preparing home reports meant properties were taking at least three to four weeks to reach the market, while the speculative seller who used to test the market and sell only if a good enough offer was received has disappeared from the market.

Mr Ferguson said: "The effects of the reports are broken government promises, multiple survey costs, delays in properties going on the market and the loss of the speculative seller.

"The scheme is now in chaos and should be scrapped. Sales are 60per cent down for the quarter January to March 2009 compared with same quarter in 2008, according to the official figures of Registers of Scotland.

"The effect of all this is that the home reports scheme is fatally wounded. It is an expenses scandal. The sooner the government stop believing their own rhetoric and admit that home reports are as good as dead the sooner the public avoid all this wasted expense."

However, there are plenty of positive voices. Sarah Speirs, from RICS Scotland, said: "Buyers and sellers seem to be getting used to having the home report as part of the buying and selling process. It was introduced to give potential buyers more upfront information about a property, reduce the need for multiple valuations and to ultimately improve the condition of Scotland's private housing stock.

"Money-conscious purchasers are taking advantage of this."v

The primary driver for the introduction of the home report was to provide sellers and buyers with better information about the condition, energy efficiency and value of a property before offers are submitted, allowing the purchaser, traditionally the party stumping up for surveys, to make better-informed decisions.

Before their introduction, it was estimated that over 90per cent of people buying a house obtained only a mortgage valuation report, containing very little information about the property's condition.v

Rettie & Co are one of Scotland's leading property firms and specialise in the high end of the market - generally properties valued above GBP450,000 Tony Perriam, the company's director of residential sales, said: "Essentially, they have tempered seller expectation, which has proved inflationary in the past, while also giving buyers the reassurance of an objective independent evaluation when considering what offer to make on a property.

"We genuinely believe home reports have unlocked property transactions in the past five months and for buyers and sellers alike have been extremely useful in providing a clearer picture of a property's value by ensuring it is impossible to introduce an overpriced property in the marketplace."

Sarah O'Neill of Consumer Focus Scotland said the reports made buying and selling homes in Scotland fairer and clearer than ever.

She added: "Scotland's housing market has not escaped the effects of the global credit crunch and mortgages are not as easy to get as in the past. But the fact that some people still blame home reports for every house buying or selling ill is one of the great mysteries of our time.

"The logic of that position suggests that they believe that the housing market can survive fine without encouraging first-time buyers, that multiple surveys are a good thing for buyers and that we've somehow lost something now because people are no longer forced to bid massively over the asking price for the home they've set their heart on."