Scott Highlights Shetland Home Report Problem
15 January 2009
Shetland MSP, Tavish Scott, has sought assurances from the Government that no-one selling a house on Shetland will be penalised because of failings in a database which makes it impossible for many sellers to offer the Home Report which are now required by law.
Tavish Scott wrote to the Communities Minister to raise the problem, after learning that surveyors in Shetland were having difficulties registering Energy Performance Certificates for many Shetland properties.
He told the Minister that he had been advised that the database of properties in Shetland is incomplete, and many properties, possibly more than 50%, are not on the register. He said that the result was that surveyors are frequently finding themselves unable to register the Energy Performance Certificate for a Shetland property so that the property’s Home Report is incomplete. He pointed out that this left owners of houses not on the database, who wish to sell their house, unable to do so without breaking the law which requires them to have a Home Report.
In his letter to the Minister, Tavish Scott sought assurances “that no-one will be prosecuted if they attempt to sell a house without a completed Home Report, if their home is not on the database so that its Energy Performance Certificate cannot be registered.” He also sought assurances “that no restriction will be placed on the selling of houses not on the database.”
After asking the Minister when the database of all Shetland properties is expected to be completed, he asked him to consider lifting the need for Home Reports to be provided for any Shetland home offered for sale until the database was complete. He pointed out that, unless that was done, “having some homes with Home Reports, and some without, will cause confusion and place some sellers at a disadvantage to others.”
Commenting, Tavish Scott said, “It is regrettable that this problem has arisen, but it has and the Minister needs to act. Clearly, no one should be stopped from selling their home because they are unable, through no fault of their own, to get a Home Report. But, with the housing market as difficult as it is, there is also a need to make sure that, within Shetland, all houses are treated the same, so the need for a Home Report should be lifted in Shetland until all houses can get one.”