DUNDEE AND areas in Fife, Angus and Perth and Kinross are to take part in a pilot project switching responsibility for house surveys to the seller rather than the buyer.

The scheme will be piloted in Dundee and Inverness as well as parts of Glasgow and Edinburgh from April and will last between eight months and a year, depending on uptake.

It will be voluntary but when a house goes on the market the seller will be encouraged to arrange and pay for a survey which will be available for inspection by all the prospective purchasers.

Ultimately the cost of the survey will be met by the successful buyer of the property.

Dundee-based MSP Marlyn Glen said she had been informed by Scottish Executive Communities Minister Margaret Curran that the areas involved in the pilot will include Dundee, Monifieth, Carnoustie, Newtyle, Inchture, Newport, Tayport, Balmullo and Leuchars.

She said the scheme offered the prospect of ending the cycle of multiple surveys having to be obtained for one house with consequent expense for unsuccessful bidders.

Ms Glen said details of the post-codes involved in the pilot project are available on her website, www.mglen.org.uk/sss.htm

The single survey pilots are an Executive initiative supported by solicitors, estate agents, chartered surveyors and mortgage lenders. They will be managed by Communities Scotland, the Executive’s housing and regeneration agency.

Each survey will provide a comprehensive guide to the condition of a property as well as a valuation.

At present one third of house purchasers in Scotland have to pay for multiple reports for different properties before they succeed with a bid. This can cost around £100 a time.

Meanwhile, it has also been announced that councils are to get extra powers to force home-owners to repair decaying houses.

As well as modernising the powers of councils for tackling serious disrepair in private property, the “tolerable standard” of housing is to be raised to cover insulation and electricity.

The new legislation, the Private Sector Housing Bill, will be brought forward during the lifetime of the current Parliament. But it is unlikely to find a slot in the legislative programme for this year.

Ms Curran said there was a need for more awareness by homeowners of their responsibilities.

At present, if a private house is in serious disrepair, councils have powers to serve repair orders.

But ministers want to see that extended, giving councils powers similar to Edinburgh, where bye-laws enable the city to compel reluctant home-owners to stump up for necessary communal repairs.

The extra powers could be used in the case of flat-owners holding out against repairs, or where a house posed a threat to adjoining properties.

The move to raise the “tolerable standard” would update legislation from the 1960s, to cover electrical safety and provide a basic standard of thermal insulation.

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