Clause 3Duties of a responsible person where a property is on the market
Homes Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
The debate has seen five main issues raised and one suggestion made by the hon. Member for Bath. I will try and deal with them in turn.
The first point made by the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Mr. Waterson) was an expression of concern about the provision that requires the seller or the seller's agent to have a seller's pack in his possession at all times. During debate on a previous amendment, I gave an undertaking that the Government would think further on the matter, as it was not our intention to create an unworkable requirement that might be interpreted over-zealously. I hope the hon. Gentleman will accept that is a genuine commitment. It is difficult to avoid amending the provision in a way that does not create a huge loophole, but I am hopeful that the great legal minds that advise us on legislation will come up with an appropriate solution that enables us to avoid that loophole while making the changes he wants.
The hon. Gentleman's second concern focused on circumstances in which it might not be possible to get all the documents together. In my view, the Bill represents a sensible and practical response to such circumstances. The normal requirement is that the seller's pack should be assembled in full and marketing can then begin. However, for cases in which, for good reasons, certain documents cannot be secured in a timely fashion and the whole process would be unreasonably delayed thereby, we have provided that seller's pack can be issued with the missing items indicated in the pack and provided as soon as they become available.
We had an interesting and useful debate about the kind of documents that would be involved—the warranties and guarantees that owners recall having secured some time ago, but are found to have mysteriously disappeared when the time comes to trawl through the chest of drawers. That is a common occurrence and it is reasonable to make provision for such items not to be provided in the initial seller's pack, but to be provided at a later stage. That is entirely pragmatic and I do not accept the suggestion the provision is an indication that the system will not work properly.