Shepherd Chartered Surveyors, one of the largest independent firms of chartered surveyors in the UK, has launched an exclusive deferred payment option for Home Reports.

The only deferred payment option currently available to Scottish sellers, Shepherd’s product launch follows the recent withdrawal of deferred credit sources to private sellers in the Scottish market following changes to European consumer credit legislation. Rather than credit, Shepherd’s deferred payment product offers customers up to nine months to pay their bills as part of the terms and conditions of its payment process.

Ian Fergusson, Managing Partner at Shepherd, said: “The only one of its kind currently available in Scotland, this product has been developed to provide home sellers with a deferred payment option, aligned to our high quality service and advice, that helps sellers ease their homes onto the market, making it easier for buyers to seize the opportunities available and thereby helping counteract the difficult market conditions that prevail at present.”

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Shepherd’s deferred payment scheme is available to customers who instruct a Home Report via approved estate agents and solicitors.

According to Fergusson, Home Reports make the process of buying a new home more transparent by removing much of the uncertainty over what price to bid and accept, as well as giving a clearer picture on the state of repair the property is in, by so doing, they are encouraging a much-needed flow of transactions in a housing market still limited by confidence levels and lending restrictions.

"Most home buyers and sellers in Scotland have demonstrated their trust in, and understanding of, the role played by Chartered Surveyors in undertaking Home Reports and, by so doing, have enabled the property market to readjust itself to reflect more realistic values; a readjustment that would have been more problematic to achieve under the previous system," he said.

"The introduction of our new deferred payment option has been designed to meet the needs of those sellers that would have benefited previously from deferred credit arrangements and fills a gap in the market following the withdrawal of ready available credit.

"It is important therefore that sellers determine at the outset that the firm of surveyors they appoint to produce their Home Report has representation on all the main lenders’ panels because, if it has not, they run the risk of the buyer having to commission a further valuation report from a firm that the lender approves, adding an extra unnecessary cost, uncertainty and delay to the sale process."

Only a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Scotland is legally qualified to undertake the necessary property survey and produce a Home Report.

(GK)