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HIPs to get full roll-out

26 November 2007

The Government has announced that from 14 December Home Information Packs (HIPs) will be required for all properties being sold in England and Wales. The controversial packs came into force for homes with four or more bedrooms on 1 August, and three bedroom properties on 10 September, with the aim of speeding up the house-buying process by giving potential buyers more of the information they require upfront.

Yvette Cooper, the Minister of State for Housing, claims the extension of the scheme will help first-time buyers as the "information such as searches, which they would previously have had to pay for, will now be included in the HIP paid for by the seller, reducing the costs of the first step on the property ladder."

The HIPs launch was initially delayed amongst fears of too few assessors for the Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) section, which grades homes for efficiency and carbon emissions. The recruitment of 5,800 accredited assessors to help provide the certificates has now seen these fears diminish.

The news comes as the prime minister announced that buyers who receive low green ratings of F or G would be targeted for support and grants from the new Green Home Service.

Chris Hardy, partner in the residential property practice comments: "We have not, so far, found that the introduction of HIPs has had a significant effect on the conveyancing process. It is therefore difficult to judge whether the Government's objective of speeding up the house buying process has been achieved. There have been examples where the quality of the information included within the HIP has been poor. In one case the local search had been carried out on the wrong property and in another the title information related only to part of the property that our client was buying. We then had to instigate a new search which caused both delay and additional expense."

Chris concludes: "These may just be teething troubles which will be ironed out over time. The decision to require HIPs for properties of any size earlier than anticipated will certainly test the new system.