Home Information Pack

NEWS 

The removal of the Home Condition Report from the Home Information Pack, recently announced, will place renewed emphasis on the Energy Performance Certificate.

June 2007 will see a Home information pack being produced as part of a phased rollout that is already taking place but it will focus on searches and energy performance information. The aim is to enable buyers and sellers to achieve an A B C D E F G rating on their properties similar to that already in available for domestic appliances such as fridges , freezers and washing machines. Guidance will also be made available helping people to cut their fuel bills and Co2 emissions at the same time.

So, it is still important for Conveyancers and their firms to look at how their services are currently being delivered to the market and where necessary, implement change. 

Thanks Mountain Software 

The former head of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) will launch an attack on Home Information Packs (Hips) today calling for the property sales industry to present a unified voice against them.

Trevor Kent will say Hips are “the most ill-conceived, ill-researched and ill-tested change to property sales law and practice that England and Wales has ever experienced”.

In a speech to the general council of the NAEA he will say: “The government have singularly failed to convince the industry, even those supporting packs, that any of the milestones the government themselves set in place for satisfactory roll-out of packs have been reached.

“To continue this folly will lead to property market melt-down of undreamt of proportions.”

Hips are planned to come into force on June 1st 2007, and are expected to cost sellers between £600 and £1,000.

The packs will have a set of documents providing important information about the property including searches, copies of the deeds and information regarding its energy efficiency.

However, Mr Kent cites a lack of trained home inspectors needed to issue the packs, the lack of actual market conditions being replicated during their trial (taking place from November of this year) as some of the reasons why Hips have not met important milestones.

Earlier this week the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) announced consumer demand for Hips during the trial had been positive and sellers requested them as they believed they would increase the speed of their sale.

“The reality is Hips are happening and we have seen clear indications that more businesses are now taking steps to prepare, with Ahipp membership continuing to grow, up a further ten per cent since the roll [out] was first announced in August,” said Paul Broadhead, deputy director general for Ahipp.