Benefits of Home Information Packs (HIP)
Recently it was reported that industry professionals are recognising the benefits of Home Information Packs (HIP). This is against the general negative slant the main stream media seem to want to promote.
HIP-Consultant.co.uk have been providing Home Information Packs for over 18 months and have witnessed numerous situations where Home Information Packs have benefitted the home buyer, home seller and the process itself. Without Home Information Packs; sales would have quite likely fallen through and at best would have held up proceedings to an extent the majority of people would be very unhappy with.
Periodically, there are calls to scrap HIPs which are often justified by statements such as ‘that it will help a slow market.’ This is contrary to our belief and a growing number of others consisting and including those professional involved with HIPs and consumers who have experienced first hand the benefits Home Information Packs bring to the table.
It is noteworthy that Grant Shapps has recently indicated approval of an ‘exchange ready’ HIP which is a much softened view of conservatives past stance, showing an understanding of the true benefits and the future possibilities for improvements.
Also, SPLINTA a group formed to rally support against the HIP recently ran a survey amongst agents and other property professionals whether they would support a partial or total boycott of HIPs, and whether they would join an anti-HIP demonstration in London. The feedback was not as the group had hoped and was mainly positive pro- HIP responses. Due to these responses SPLINTA claimed that it had been ‘hijacked’ and closed the survey. This is slightly more trivial, though it does indicate on another level the growing support for the Home Information Pack.
HIP-Consultant.co.uk as others, believe it could actually cause futher harm to the UK Property Market and the home buying and selling process by sacrifing the benefits we have gained through the HIP implementation.
At this point it is worth remembering that the majority of the Home Information Pack information has always been required for buying and selling a property. There are some new documents such as the Property Information Questionnaire but the main difference is that the information is required at the start of the process rather than once a sale is agreed. This one point can bring massive benefits to all those who are involved.
The following is a recent example of how Home Information Packs can practically benefit the Home Buyer, Home Seller, chain and the market.
On preperation of a number of HIPs it was discovered that a development of appartments had been originally registered incorrectly. i.e. number 1 was registered under the name of the owner at number 3; number 3 was registered under the name of the owner at number 5 etc. This may comes as a shock to some but as we all know mistakes can happen. However, early identification does provide breathing space for these to be recitified and not hold up or cease a potential sale.
Fortunately, this issue was highlighted due to our thorough procedures and appropriate steps were put in place to rectify the error. However, this took some time for the original conveyancer to co-ordinate which would have held up the sale if the error had been identified in times gone by; when the documents would have been prepared only once an offer had been accepted.
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