New rules for selling houses in UK with people told to 'ensure you're compliant'

New house selling rules in the UK could hit sellers with an "unexpected cost", it has been warned. Home sellers have been warned of a hidden "upfront cost" that could emerge before a buyer is found under new rules for properties.

New rules mean home sellers must provide additional information before listing their homes, and the changes mean estate agents receive more material information, but to do so, sellers will be forced to fork out more in the process.

Anton Osborne, director of property at Taylor Rose, said: “It is unlikely that any seller - or indeed their estate agent - will be knowledgeable enough to provide the substantial amount of information now required in order to comply with these mandatory requirements.

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“Sellers are almost certainly going to need to instruct a property lawyer at the end at the point they list the property to ensure they can be compliant with these requirements, and this is going to come at an additional cost."

He continued: "No property lawyer is going to assist a seller in obtaining this information for free, hence, there will be an upfront cost that previously there hasn’t been to put your property on the market.

“Additionally, not all properties that are listed actually sell, so even before you have found a buyer or a chain is completely, each party in that chain will have had to go to the time and expense of providing a significant amount of pre-sale information, which is always at risk of resulting as wasted cost. This change will only make the conveyancing process even longer.”

“The Government has potentially not considered this significant unintended consequence of capping ground rent," explained Anton. “These major reforms will have significant repercussions for private pensions, as most pension funds invest in ground rents as a stable and reliable form of income generation.

“If the legalisation goes ahead and rents are capped, the government and pension funds must speak effectively to ensure we don’t see the value of nearly all pensions drop significantly.”