Property Ladder - Tips for moving up

Today saw an interesting article published on Money Supermarket’s website focusing on tips for those moving up the property ladder.  

It reports that recent research by Lloyds TSB has revealed that those looking to buy their first home are not the only ones struggling.  The bank found that 19% of people already living in their first home and looking to move on simply do not have enough equity to do so.

The average second home is priced at £48,216 more than the average first home, which is a hefty 32% increase.

The TIPs for those looking however to make that next step include:

Get an idea of your home's value:

Websites such as www.propertypriceadvice.co.uk provide a lower, higher and average valuation depending on confidence and activity in the market. Make sure you keep a realistic view on the value.

Be prepared to take a price cut:

If your home isn't budging, be prepared to reduce the price as this might be your only option. According to the Lloyds TSB research just 13% of people will reduce the asking price if they can't sell their home at the current price

Try to keep the value to under £250,000:

The duty  jumps from 1% to 3% as soon as you break through the £250,000 mark on your new home, so try to keep under the threshold by shopping around and, of course, negotiating. Keep in mind that the average expenditure on other moving expenses is around £5,500.

Stamp Duty Tax planning may be option for those buying above £250,000.

Remember only first-time buyers who have never owned a property before are exempt from paying Stamp Duty on properties costing up to £250,000, and this exemption only applies until March 2012. If you are buying with someone else, they must never have owned property before either for the tax perk to apply.

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Senior Judge calls for change in law to benefit cohabitees

Sir Nicholas Wall, the president of the Family Division, has today said that Unmarried couples who split up after living together should have legal rights to a possible share of property and money. He added courts would be more sympathetic to a claim where the couple had been living together for a significant amount of time.

Currently apart from when children are involved a judge has no discretion to make financial provision or adjustment in the same way as is possible when dealing with married couples.  A sixth of couples in Britain live together with the number expected to rise.

Sir Nicholas told the Times: "I am in favour of cohabitees having rights because of the injustice of the present situation. Women cohabitees, in particular, are severely disadvantaged by being unable to claim maintenance and having their property rights determined by the conventional laws of trusts."

He added: "If cohabitation has been short and the contribution minimal, judges would not be sympathetic to a claim."

Morgan Jones and Pett are solicitors who provide legal advice and services to clients based in England and Wales and who can be contacted on 01603877000 or via email at davidpett@m-j-p.co.uk

Google Streetview and Museums

A new Google resource has today come on line. Google has extended its Streetview facility to enable some of the world's greatest museums and institutions to become visible through its 360° photo project. The institutions include the New York MOMA, the Uffizi in Florence and the Tate Modern in London. They can also be seen on a dedicated website that Google has created specifically for this project. 

Morgan Jones and Pett are solicitors who provide legal advice and services to clients based in England and Wales and who can be contacted on 01603877000 or via email at davidpett@m-j-p.co.uk

Conveyancing Quality Scheme - another Law Society 'White Elephant'?

The Law Society is now actively promoting  its new residential conveyancing quality scheme.

The Conveyancing Quality Scheme, which is supported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, will provide a recognised quality standard for residential conveyancing practices.

No details of the benefits of the scheme are known, though the Law Society is planning to publish these at the beginning in April to coincide with the Easter house-hunting surge.

It is reported that Law Society president Linda Lee is claiming that over the past three years, the society had led consumer PR campaigns encouraging the public to use a solicitor rather than other legal providers – all of which had been successful.

This campaign it seems was rather low key as reports from some solicitors claim that the Law Society has not done enough to promote the profession and that a large section of the public has now resigned itself to be led by cost rather than quality.  

Linda Lee is reported to have said: “We now plan to do the same with CQS, a scheme which will be of genuine benefit to anyone buying a home.

“The aim is to generate publicity for legal practices which have secured the CQS mark of excellence and enable them to market their CQS status to the public effectively.

Until the benefits to the consumer are known a large number of solicitors are asking whether this scheme is likely to become another ‘white elephant’ similar to the Law Society’s Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence panels.   Those schemes that have been up and running for a number of years have had little impact on the consumer’s choice of solicitor.

The Law Society is hoping that this scheme will help solicitors compete with outside suppliers when they begin to come into the market after the full implementation of the Legal Services Act in October of this year.   The general view however is this move is represents  ‘too little, too late’  and is likely to have little impact.

Morgan Jones and Pett are solicitors who provide legal advice and services to clients based in England and Wales and who can be contacted on 01603877000 or via email at davidpett@m-j-p.co.uk

Land Registry figures show further fall in house prices

The Land Registry has  announced that house prices are now just 1.5% higher than a year ago. As regards prices the news is no better with house prices falling by 0.2% in December compared with November, putting the average cost of a home at £163,814 in England and Wales. Some regions are however doing better than others. The highest price change is in London, which has experienced an annual increase of 6.2% and a monthly gain of 1%.

The picture for the immediate future looks gloomy with the  downward trend in prices looking to continue due the uncertainty regarding the economy and the Government’s spending cuts.

Mortgage approvals and house sales continue to fall and the housing market is expected to remain subdued throughout 2011 as a result.

Morgan Jones and Pett are solicitors who provide legal advice and services to clients based in England and Wales and who can be contacted on 01603877000 or via email at davidpett@m-j-p.co.uk

US Housing Market still failing to make a marked recovery

The latest Chief Economist's Weekly Brief form National Westminster Bank suggests that the large supply of housing stock, compared with falling demand, will continue to ‘weigh the market down’ and  cause a ‘drag’ on  the general economic recovery happening within the US.  This is evidenced  by US house prices falling by 0.5% m/m in November (1.6%y/y) bringing them down to 2003 levels. This is 30% below the peak and only 3% above the 2009 trough. 

Morgan Jones and Pett are solicitors who provide legal advice and services to clients based in England and Wales and who can be contacted on 01603877000 or via email at davidpett@m-j-p.co.uk

What is Astroturfing?

Astroturfing according to Wikipedia  ‘denotes political, advertising, or public relations campaigns that are formally planned by an organization, but are disguised as spontaneous, popular "grassroots" behavior’.

The idea behind such campaigns is to give the impression that the efforts of an entity, such as a company, have not come from the company but have been launched independently by members of the public.

A good example of this can be found in the efforts of a Montreal based marketing company, Morrow Communications, who were engaged to help prepare for the launch of a new public bike system, and who acknowledged creating a dummy blog falsely pretending to be managed by 3 individuals to promote the use of bicycles in Montreal. They also created videos for the Blog and a Facebook webpage. 

The use of Astroturfing in modern day marketing is wide spread and is often used to ‘hype’ a product and as mentioned above the impression that the product has a benefit that is already being talked about by the market at which it is aimed.  Another example is where fictitious testimonials are created to support a product or service so as to give the impression it is popular.  The downside of this is that one now must be very careful when relying on reviews. 

Written by David Pett