Majority of NAEA members believe HIPs should be scrapped
Survey figures released by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) today reveal 69% of respondents do not believe the home information pack (HIP) will be introduced by the government deadline of 1 June 2007.
The majority of the estate agency industry lost faith in the idea of compulsory HIPs a long time ago. Particularly as the need for a Home Condition Report (HCR) is redundant thanks to the onset of e-conveyancing which will dramatically improve the time it takes to process residential property sale transactions, without any change to existing legislation. The HCR was a fundamental part of the HIP until a partial government u-turn on the legislation earlier this year. Without the HCR the HIP is unnecessary and will still do little to improve the buying and selling of residential property in the UK.
Furthermore, the so-called HIPs trial, which is to receive £4m of government funding, is an equal waste of time and public money. As participants will receive a fully or partially funded HIP the trial will be a very unlikely indicator of how well HIPs will be received by the public and carried out by the industry when it becomes a legal requirement to have one before selling a home. To add insult to injury, the trial is being carried out by an organisation representing HIP providers and has a clear, vested interest in the success of the trials.
