MY HOUSE moving story ('My own painful experience of today's house-buying hell', July 6) seems to have struck a chord with a number of readers, not least those attempting to move home.
And judging from your e-mails, my own horror story, which led me to believe that banks had stopped lending and everyone involved in the housebuying process was having a collective nervous breakdown, is anything but untypical in the current climate.
I heard from one reader who is currently relocating from Edinburgh to London. He is an experienced and sophisticated housebuyer, working in financial services, who has previously bought properties not just in the UK but around the world.
He found a house in a prime location and put in an offer, which he was delighted to have accepted and he was more than happy to pay. But he was surprised to find that the bank's valuation came in 14% below his offer.
He was even more astonished when the head office intervened and said they would only take 40% of that valuation into consideration when deciding how much they were prepared to lend. "The land alone was worth more than that," he said.
Another reader wanted to downsize and found just what she and her husband were looking for in Edinburgh. The following day she instructed her solicitor to put in an offer, only to be told that the seller's solicitor would not accept an offer as they still had to sell their house.
She spoke privately to the sellers, who said they were happy for her to take as long as she needed to sell. Once again, she instructed her solicitor to put in an offer, to be told that a note of interest would suffice in the meantime.
In the absence of a formal offer, the seller switched to a fixed price. Our reader again contacted her solicitor, instructing him to put in a firm offer. But she was told that he did not think this was a good idea and advised her to think about it again.
Meanwhile, someone else came along and put in an offer below the fixed price. Our reader wrote: "My solicitor contacted me to let me know an offer had been produced but it was below the asking price and asked me what should be done. I was shocked as it appeared he was only now prepared to put in our offer. I asked him to let the seller's agent know we were still interested."
They were too late and the house was sold. Meanwhile, they discovered their solicitor had replied to the vendor's solicitor's phone call by saying they were not in a position to put in an offer. "Not quite the instruction I had given him," she said.
Hardly surprising, then, that the number of new loans for house purchase in May was 44% lower than a year ago.
Pension problemsSO PARLIAMENT is nearly through the current session and personal pension accounts are no nearer becoming law; a development which many will greet with relief.
Personal Accounts, if you remember, were the outcome of the sterling pension reform work undertaken by Lord Adair Turner. He spent a couple of years studying our pensions crisis and came up with the best solution he could.
He recommended automatic enrolment of all employees after 2012, and for compulsory contributions by both company and employee.
With a huge chunk of the workforce currently without any access to pensions, this was not only a sensible conclusion but unavoidable.
Where the Government, and possibly Turner, went wrong was in hailing Personal Accounts as the big solution to our pension crisis. Unfortunately, it created as many problems as it solved.
I never believed Personal Accounts would see the light of day, and a significant shift in the mood music seems to be under way.
The Department for Work and Pensions has begun to stress that Personal Accounts are just one option among many when it comes to pension planning. In other words, the Government seems to be walking away from the idea of a national pension savings scheme as originally envisaged. Very wise too.
It also seems at this very belated hour to be seriously taking on board warnings of pensions experts that more pensions might not mean better pensions. One concern is that all low-paid employees may achieve through pension saving is to cut their means-tested benefits in retirement.
The Government has commissioned a report into this aspect, but this isn't due until the end of the year.
Another huge risk is that some employees currently enjoying a generous pension contribution from their employer will see that cut back to the minimum required by law.
Finally, by 2012 we will have a new Government and there is no guarantee that a new administration will continue with Personal Accounts.
The full article contains 819 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
