Housing, whiplash claims, Tesco and rail compensation

The number of homes coming on to the property market has slipped further as demand climbed in September after a slow summer selling season, according to The Telegraph. The residential market survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) found that the number of new instructions to sell fell for the seventh consecutive month. Meanwhile, demand from buyers climbed for the first time since February, albeit modestly. Rics’ survey found that 8 per cent more respondents reported an increase than a decrease in the amount of new buyers, although there was a lot of variation across the country behind the headline number. This cocktail of a continually falling number of homes for sale and increasing number of potential buyers is helping to underpin high house prices. Whiplash claims George Osborne’s reforms to how the insurance industry deals with claims for whiplash injuries have been set aside by the Government, increasing costs for motorists. According to The Times, ministers are understood to have told insurers that they are unenthusiastic about the proposals, leading the industry to conclude that they will never emerge. The reforms would have ended the right to cash compensation for minor whiplash injuries, saving insurers £1 billion and taking up to £50 off motorists’ average annual insurance bills. In response, James Dalton, director of general insurance policy at the Association of British Insurers, said: ‘The Ministry of Justice seems to be rowing back from much needed reform to the civil justice system that will save motorists up to £50 a year on average. The UK has one of the most abused systems in Europe and the reforms would tackle the excesses of the compensation culture. Without action, claims management companies will continue to nuisance call and text honest motorists encouraging them to make fraudulent and exaggerated claims through claimant law firms.

‘Every day of delay costs honest motorists across the UK nearly £3 million. The plans are drawn up and ready to go so there is no excuse for not pushing ahead.’

Tesco

Tesco has stopped selling dozens of its most famous household brands to its online shoppers because of a dispute with its biggest supplier, Unilever. Included are Marmite, PG Tips tea, Pot Noodles and Surf washing powder.

The row is said to have developed when Unilever – which says it faces higher costs because of the fall in sterling – attempted to increase wholesale prices. The products are still being sold in stores but Tesco said its shelves were running short of several brands. It said it was ‘currently experiencing availability issues on a number of Unilever products’. Sterling has dropped by 16 per cent against the euro since the UK’s Brexit vote. Rail compensation

Rail passengers will be able to claim compensation for delays of more than 15 minutes under new government plans. They can currently only make claims when services are delayed by at least 30 minutes.

The Department for Transport said its new scheme will initially launch on Govia Thameslink Railway services in the next few months before being expanded on other networks. Bond markets The yield on 10-year gilts continued to rise yesterday as investors sold off the bonds. Higher gilt yields push up the cost of servicing Britain’s national debt and financing the deficit. Mike Amey, managing director of Pimco – the world’s biggest bond investor – says gilt traders are keeping an eye on inflation risks and Chancellor Philip Hammond’s government spending plans. Although there’s been quite a big sell off in bond markets over the past few weeks, markets are likely to wait and see what the Chancellor has to say in his autumn statement in a month’s time, Mr Amey told the Today programme. Burglaries

A burglary will cost the average household £2,833, according to Post Office Home Insurance.

The research, taken from the Office for National Statistics, found that unlucky residents could be met with a £566 bill for damage in addition to the £2,267 lost in stolen valuables.

The most common costs as a result of damage caused during a burglary include forced doors (51 per cent), broken locks (27 per cent) and broken windows (24 per cent). Families may find themselves scrabbling to scrape together the money to cover these repairs, at a time when they feel particularly vulnerable in their own home.

Rob Clarkson, managing director at Post Office Money Insurance, said: ‘Nothing can prepare homeowners for the emotional impact of a burglary – it can leave you feeling vulnerable and unsafe in your own home. At this difficult time, the last thing you should be concerned about is the practicality of covering costs for home repairs or replacing valuables. As such, it’s important to make sure you protect your home as much as possible, not just by securing doors and windows but also by having adequate home insurance in place. We also suggest that wherever possible you don’t leave portable valuable items on show.’

Finally… New research by landlord insurer Direct Line for Business reveals that nearly one in three people who have rented a property in the last five years think it is acceptable to take items that don’t belong to them when they move out. Some of the more popular things tenants have removed from their rental properties have included fridges, freezers, light fittings, televisions and sinks. Some of the reasons for taking items from rented properties included believing that the landlord wouldn’t notice that the item was missing, taking items by accident and forgetting that the item was not theirs. However, the most common excuse – given by more than a fifth of respondents who admitted that they had stolen items – was simply that they wanted to take the items. The cost to the landlord of replacing these items adds up, with tenants estimating that the overall value of items they had taken from a property stands at over £500.