Nicholas Leeming, our Propertyfinder.com property guru believes:
Most agents don’t think that HIPs have had a major effect yet, mainly because the average consumer is still largely unaware of HIPs. The majority of homeowners simply have not heard about them.
As June draws closer, and people become more aware, we will certainly see a rise in the number of instructions as sellers seek to beat the deadline.
Any increase in supply related to HIPs is going to disrupt normal seasonal patterns in the market and make it harder to determine the true impact of the Bank of England’s series of rate rises on the housing market. It will take some time for things to settle and the underlying picture to become clearer.
Continue reading "Do I have to put electrical certificates in my Pack?" »
The seller is responsible for the cost of a Home Information Pack. The cost of the Pack is down to the market, but sellers will often be able to defer costs until late in the sale.
Some documents can be no be more than three months old when marketing starts, but there is no obligation to update Packs as long as the property remains on the market. No component of the Pack should be more than 12 months old on the day the property goes on sale. For more details, see the regulations on the industry site.
From the HIPS website.
If you are marketing your property, even if it's just by putting a 'for sale' sign in the window, you need a Pack. Sales where no marketing takes place (e.g. to a member of the family) won't need a Pack.
From the HIPS website.
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.
Just when you thought the HIPs saga was quietening down, the National Associaltion of Estate Agents today expressed ongoing concern over the Government annoucement that they were pushing ahead with HIPs and that they were to spend £4 million pounds supporting and Industry dry run of HIPs in six locations. Peter Bolton King Chief Executive of the NAEA said
“The Association has always said that it was vital that any trials thoroughly test not only the systems but whether our concerns about the effect on the market caused by a lack of first day marketing and reduction in housing supply are justified. We have not been told how these trails are to be conducted and have doubts as to their effectiveness in a voluntary scenario.”
The association again calls on the Government to realise that HIPs are not the way forward and sit down with Industry to look at ways of really improving the system to the benefit of consumers.
Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.
The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) intends to introduce Hips, including a home condition report, from the end of this year.
Mike Ockenden, Director General of AHIPP said:
The fact that Hips will still happen on June 1st is good news for the consumer. A recent survey by an AHIPP member Your Move found that 85 per cent of consumers would welcome the Home Condition Report (HCR) as part of the pack - the Government’s decision to allow the HCR to be voluntary at the start is wholly unnecessary.It is our firm belief that there will be consumer demand for the HCR and it will become mandatory.
Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.
Yvette Cooper, the Housing Minister, said that dry run tests on 14,000 home information packs with searches would be required before the home condition report could become mandatory.
Ms Cooper said that the government was looking for a progressive voluntary take-up of the reports. However, she added that the reports would still become mandatory if the industry failed to make a success of them.
Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.
The government appears to have scrapped home condition reports after 130 MPs signed a motion in eary July against the packs.
However, there were also concerns there would not have been enough inspectors to cope with demands for the home condition reports. Plans to train 7,500 inspectors are behind schedule: at the end of last month, only 232 inspectors had completed their training.
Continue reading "Q&A: Why did the government change their mind?" »
Lucia Adams, assistant property editor of The Times, explains what has changed.
Until the government’s U-turn yesterday, home condition reports, akin to a traditional survey, were to be a compulsory part of the new Home Information Packs (Hips). Costing sellers up to £1,000 HIPs, which will be introduced from June next year, also include local authority searches and a property's title deeds.
Continue reading "Q&A: What has changed in the Government's plans?" »
From June 2007, all homes in the UK must have an energy efficiency rating before they can be sold. The government says this move, which is in line with European agreements, will help the UK reduce its carbon emissions.
The Energy Performance Certificate will form part of the Home Information Packs, to be introduced next year. Inspectors will evaluate the current and potential energy efficiency of each home, giving a rating from A to G. The report will also list measures the home owner could undertake to improve the rating.
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), is asking the government to recognise that what is left of HIPs is unworkable now the Home Condition Report (HCR) is not mandatory, and to find other ways of improving the property buying and selling process.
Peter Bolton King, the Chief Ececutive Officer of the NAEA comments:
Whatever anyone might think about the whole concept of HIPs, it is nonsense to make only part voluntary. The majority of the remaining compulsory documents are, at best, often unnecessary before a sale is agreed and, at worst, unintelligible without legal interpretation or likely to become out of date.
The Government’s stated reason for bringing in HIPS was that if potential purchasers were armed with all the information fewer sales would fall through. However there is little evidence that sales fall through because of legal, title or search problems and as such there is absolutely no need to insist on this information being made available prior to a sale being agreed. Bolton King says,
In any case the advent of quick E Conveyancing removes much of the need for the legal part of a HIP anyway. The Government should now take the bull by the horns and make the decision to repeal the introduction of HIPs and return to the drawing board.
According to the NAEA, this leaves the question of the EU requirement for an energy rating certificate. The Government must now urgently agree with Industry who will be carrying out the compulsory energy rating check. This is shortly to be expanded to cover not only houses being sold but also those being rented and commercial properties. The Association supports the idea that there should be a separate stand-alone qualification to cover this and will work with Government to hopefully rapidly bring this about. Qualified Home Inspectors will not be interested in spending their lives doing just this. We believe that the requirement can easily be achieved via accredited Estate Agents at the time they are placing a house on the market.
The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) have announced they are committed to the future success of the HIP and are taking confident steps towards their worth.
AHIPP and its members are in the final stages of planning a regional roll out which will commence in quarter four this year. The objective of the roll out will be to demonstrate the benefits to buyers and sellers of the Home Information Pack and including the voluntary Home Condition Report which relies on the Government enabling the licensing of qualified Home Inspectors, ahead of the mandatory date next June.
Read more on the AHIPP website...
Over the past few days many of you will have seen headlines about Home Information Packs (HIP's). Do you know how HIPs will effect future buyers & sellers? Read what the Minister had to say The Ministers statement. Some people had plenty to say about it!
The Association of Home Information Pack Providers
The National Association of Home Inspectors
The National Association of Estate Agents
Have a read and let us know if you think it is HIP or not ...
