As part of the Scottish Government’s latest announcements on lifting lockdown restrictions, they have confirmed that home moves will be permitted from Monday 29th June, as long as they can be carried out safely.
This is great news not only for home movers, but also sellers and landlords, after months of heavy restrictions which caused the property market to essentially close during lockdown. It also includes home moves that involve two households merging and self-builders looking to purchase plots of land.
Although the overarching advice from the government is still to stay safe and stay at home, the public are permitted to leave their homes to carry out activities connected to their home move, such as:
- visiting estate or letting agents, developer sales offices or show homes
- viewing a residential property to look for a property to buy or rent
- preparing a residential property to move in
- moving home
- visiting a residential property to undertake any activities required for the rental or sale of that property.
If you are vulnerable or self isolating, the advice remains the same, to stay at home and delay any home moves until you are out of the self isolation period.
What’s changed?
Whilst it’s good news for the property market, we are still living in a ‘new normal’ and you will find that some of the processes have changed.
Viewing a property
We recommend that you do as much of your property searching online and you can do this at s1homes.com, searching thousands of properties to rent and buy from around Scotland. If you’re currently looking for a new home and planning a move soon, here are some precautions outlined by the Scottish Government that you should follow:
- initial viewings should be done virtually wherever possible and property agents (estate agents) and landlords should help you to do this
- all physical viewings should be arranged by appointment only and open house viewings should not take place
- you should not view any properties if you have COVID-19 symptoms or are self-isolating
- when physically viewing properties, where possible, you should avoid touching surfaces, wash your hands with soap and water before entering the property or use alcohol-based hand sanitiser
- the number of people attending a viewing at one time should be restricted so that physical distancing can be practiced. You should only be accompanied to viewings with members of your current household and/or your property agent, social landlord or private landlord or representative. If you need to be accompanied by young children, you should try to stop them touching surfaces and ensure they wash their hands regularly
- if people are being shown around or working in your current home, while you are still living there, you should open all internal doors and ensure surfaces, such as door handles, are cleaned before and after each viewing with standard household cleaning products
- where possible, we recommend that you vacate your property whilst viewings are taking place, unless you are conducting the viewing, to minimise your contact with those outside your own household
- when moving between properties, you and those in your household should try to do as much of the packing yourself. Where this is not possible, you should speak to removal firms in advance.
Selling your property
You can begin to market your home and property agents are able to visit in order to take photos/videos of the property, in accordance with public health guidelines. If any member of the household being viewed is showing symptoms or is self-isolating, then property agents should not physically visit the property.
You can also start to bring together the documentation necessary to sell your property. We recommend that you contact your solicitor, mortgage advisor and lender to see if any of their processes have changed.
- Surveys and Home Reports, can also be carried out. You should continue to follow health advice and physical distancing while a survey is being carried out. The surveyor should also contact you before any home visit to let you know what you should expect and what steps they will be taking to ensure the visit meets health requirements. In relation to custom and self-build projects, surveyors can visit and undertake valuations of plots you wish to purchase.
- If you are buying a new build property, you should contact the housebuilder in the usual way. You should be able to view the show home or visit the particular plot you are interested in purchasing, by appointment only and in accordance with public health guidelines. The developer or builder may also have their own procedures and you should check with them before viewing.
We hope that this is good news for you, allowing you to continue searching for your new home, moving to your home move or even selling your home. For more information on the Scottish property market and the current situation visit https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-moving-home