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Pattinson August 31st, 2005 Details now on line e.mail richard.francis@pattinson.co.uk McCartneys FULL LIST OF HUNDREDS OF AUCTIONS ACROSS THE UK AVAILABLE AT THE HOT PROPERTY SITE WE ADVISE YOU TO CONFIRM ABOVE DETAILS WITH AUCTIONEER BEFORE TRAVELLING News SW soaks up property cash in wave of sales SCOTTISH Water today said it has been cashing in on a clamour for unusual properties, sparked by a glut of television property makeover programmes. In the three years since the organisation became Scotland's single water authority, it has sold £20.2 million worth of disused or unwanted properties and assets - including staff houses, redundant water treatment works, pumping stations and reservoirs. SW even includes a 12-metre square patch of concreted ground that used to be home to a pumping station near Edinburgh's Braid Hills Hotel among the 233 assets it has sold off. It went for £3500, when expectations had been for just £1000. "People see residential opportunities in many of the assests," says Peter Cook, general manager of property and facilities at SW. "Makeover programmes have given people a flavour for their potential - it gives them an opportunity to do something different and possibly tuck something away in their pension fund." Most of the properties and assets sold fetch between £20,000 and £30,000, with the majority sold through auction by Edinburgh-based Scottish Property Auctions. But bigger assets, such as woodland recently sold in Stirling or a house in Inverness, pulled in seven-figure sums. Mr Cook said all money from these sales gets re-invested in SW's water and sewerage estate to help keep a lid on costs to its five million customers. As a public body, SW - the fourth largest water and waste water services provider in the UK - has a responsibility under the Scottish Public Finance Manual (SPFM) to sell off any assets that are no longer of use to core operations, while maximising the returns for the taxpayer. The SPFM quotes: "Once surplus assets have been identified, they should be sold as quickly as possible subject to value for money considerations." Mr Cook said: "We are not property developers, so when a property becomes surplus to requirements we have to go through the process of disposing of it." And he added: "The money goes towards our ongoing £1.8 billion capital investment programme and other areas such as routine projects that have been delayed due to lack of funding." Across the Edinburgh and Lothians area, 17 properties have been sold off since SW was formed in April 2002, raising a total of £990,000. The biggest single sale in the area was a former works cottage near Penicuik which went for £181,050 in May 2004. Other notable sales include the Barnton Service Reservoir in Edinburgh, which raised £152,000, after being initially valued at just £30,000. Due to data protection restrictions, SW cannot reveal too much detail on what its sold-off assets are to be used for. But a small number of staff who have been tenants of SW - or its three predecessor water boards - have bought water authority houses under right to buy legislation. Other assets, such as reservoirs, can be turned into leisure facilities. Once a property is considered to be surplus to requirements by SW, Mr Cook's department decide the best route for disposal, which is normally through a public auction, particularly for assets that are difficult to value, such as a partially submerged water storage tank. By the end of the 2005 financial year, Mr Cook hopes to have clocked up sales of around £30m. Half this year's haul is expected to come from the sale of a 13-acre site in North Lanarkshire which is earmarked for residential development. "We're hoping to achieve £5m for it," noted Mr Cook. "And we expect to raise another £5m across the rest of Scotland. We're looking to get to around £30m this year." By way of boosting returns on more valuable assets, such as the North Lanarkshire site, SW looks to secure planning permission before a sale. "If there's an asset with a significant development potential that's fairly obvious, then we will want to look at maximising that potential development value by obtaining planning permission," said Mr Cook. "We recently got £2.5m from the sale of woodland near Stirling because we got full planning permission." House prices fall for fifth month House prices fell for the fifth month in a row in July, bringing
price levels back to those last seen in December, according
to the FT House Price Index, the most accurate guide to the
real trends in residential property prices. The average property was worth £190,783,
about as much as in December last year. Although some regions showed signs
of stabilising in the first quarter, prices are now beginning
to ease further in most regions.” Save Money on Your Council Tax Do you know you can visit the publicly available Council Tax Valuation List. You simply punch in your postcode and up pop the details of the Council Tax bands that you and your neighbours are in. Sites to Visit England & Wales - Council
Tax Valuation Web Site For Scotland For N.Ireland These sites are extremely comprehensive and well worth a visit. You can see what your neighbours are paying and whether they are fail and correct. In theory, there are only limited occasions when taxpayers can challenge their banding. When you've become the new owner or taxpayer for a property and you believe that the banding is wrong, you can appeal to your local valuation office within 6 months of becoming the taxpayer, but only in the following circumstances: Where the Listing Officer has changed the band of your property
and you believe that the banding is wrong, you can appeal to
the Listing Officer within 6 months from when the change was
made. Where the Valuation Tribunal has agreed to change the band of
another property similar to yours, you can appeal to the Listing
Officer within 6 months from when the change was agreed Where your property has reduced in value for any of the following
reasons: there has been a change in physical state of the local
area; there has been an adaptation to make the property suitable
for someone with a physical disability or part of the property
has been demolished My neighbour doesn't qualify for appeal under any of the above reasons but, according to my local valuation officer, it appears she could still ask him for her property to be reviewed. If he were to decide that she should have been in Band E all along, she'd be entitled to a refund of her excess payments back-dated to 1993 when Council Tax was first introduced. At the moment the valuation band is based on the price a property would have fetched if it had been sold on 1st April 1991. Any rise or fall in the property's value due to general changes in the property market isn't a reason for changing your band, so you can't appeal purely on this basis. As it happens, valuation officers across England have begun reassessing the value of more than 21 million homes for Council Tax purposes. Any changes to the banding that your home is currently allocated to won't be implemented until April 2007 but it's worth checking that you're in the correct banding in the first place. Noise Levels Throughout the Country
on Level Maps showing noise levels in 20 different parts of England have been commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Colour-graded noise maps of London and Birmingham have already been compiled as the government rolls out its so-called National Ambient Noise Strategy. Environment minister Ben Bradshaw said: "By creating more of these maps we can help government, local authorities, planners and the public better understand noise levels and work more efficiently to reduce the number of people exposed to high levels of noise." The areas to be covered by the expansion of the noise mapping project include: Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bristol, Bournemouth, Brighton, Coventry, Hull, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, Portsmouth, Preston, Southampton, Stoke on Trent, Teesside and Tyneside, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire. For full information visit
The Positive Club "Believe it can
be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe,
your mind will find the ways to do it. Believing a solution
paves the way to solution." "There
are those of us who are always about to live. We are waiting
until things change, until there is more time, until we are
less tired, until we get a promotion, until we settle down
-- until, until, until. It always seems as if there is some
major event that must occur in our lives before we begin
living." "People
waste most of their waking hours every day going through
the motions, chatting idly, shuffling paper, putting off
decisions, reacting, majoring in minors and concentrating
on trivia. They spend their time in low priority tension
relieving, rather than high priority goal-achieving activities." Remember
that if you are a HPI member that the database is constantly
changing so keep coming back for information about the latest
sales, also use the news and members' forum.
If you are not already a member of Hot Property Investor and which to gain access to the huge searchable database then please click here: http://www.hotpropertyinvestor.com and hit the join button for a choice of subscription options. There are hundreds of auction houses listed, 1,000s of sales a week. Kind regards |
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