It is true that we provide Home Information Packs and do have a vested interest though also a belief in the increasing benefit HIPS are providing.

It is not just HIP providers who are gaining an income from this market. Am sure you will be aware that many estate agents and solicitors also have a provision of some description where they benefit financially.

The awareness of HIPs does need increasing to vendors in my opinion. Estate agents can play a role in this goal by taking a pro-active approach in showing potential vendors the HIP.

Some of the information may not be of interest to vendors though that does not make it useless. Infact some of the information that is contained within the Home Information Pack has always been essential in the house buying process; it is now presented in a different form at the start of the house selling process.

The examples Mr P. Walker has given above can potentially cause delays in transaction times. By commissioning a Home Information Pack at the start of the process these examples can be identified and resolved prior to an offer being submitted, therefore removing the probability of a ‘last minute’ hold up.

Andrew Cook

The main protagonists in the anti HIP lobby have vested interests (real or perceived) in maintaining the status quo, their opposition to HIPs is not altruistic – it’s greed.
An example of this greed can be seen in the ‘mark-up’ that some Estate Agents apply to the HIP before ’selling it on’. HIP prices have fallen due to competition (and the fact that searches have become cheaper due to HIP’s!) but I regularly encounter house sellers who have paid up to £50 more for their pack because the Estate Agent has added ‘administration costs’ to it!

The Government have been sadly negligent in thier attitude towards publicity for HIP’s, has anyone seen anything meaningfull aimed at anyone other than Property ‘Professionals’? If you leave the publicity in the hands of the anti HIP lobby you get the situation that we are have now.
The general public know little, if anything, about HIPs other than the negative press releases and Estate Agents are not exactly forthcoming when asked about them.

As a DEA & HIP provider I know that many HIP’s are not being progressed until a firm offer has been made on a property. I also know that the threat of being fined £200 (per day) for not having the HIP / EPC data in place is laughed at, after all who is going to enforce it – certainly not the local Trading Standards people.

HIPs were, and still are, a very good idea. It’s a pity that the government do not seem able to recognise this and support them with the strength that they deserve.

The searches have to be done anyway, regardless. The only difference previously was that a solicitor or conveyancer, took your eyes out and came back for the sockets with the fees that you were charged.

And to say they are expensive to home sellers is claptrap as well! The price has reached a level which is far more cost effective than has been suggested. But more importantly, nearly everybody who is selling their house is going on to buy another one so it’s even stevens! The house they go to buy has to have a HIP too so they, as potential buyers, don’t have to pay out fortunes for searches cos they’ve already been done. Thus, they have saved probably more by the HIP process rather than the old way.

Despite all the political rubbish being spouted by the opportunist Tories, it is my belief that HIPS are here to stay, in one form or another. The Tories don’t have a viable alternative and probably won’t have because it’s not an issue which has any political capital at a general election. People have far more important priorities like the cost of gas and electricity, for which they are being held to ransom by energy suppliers, owned by foreign companies, which were able to do so cos Margaret Bloody Thatcher sold them all off to give tax cuts.

Since then I have been producing HIPs. I can now defend them. Over the months I have been able to resolve many issues that could have delayed the sale of a house had they not come to light at the start of marketing.

a. Properties not registered with HMLR
b. HMLR documents with incorrect postcodes
c. Homes with additional land purchased not registered with HMLR
d. Incorrect address on HMLR documents
e. Incorrect land boundries on HMLR documents
f. IH Tax issues

I feel that HIP do bring benifits. As for cost, well all the documents in the HIP(apart from the EPC) have always been required. The vendor pays for them instead of the buyer, preventing loss of monies to the buyer when the sale falls through.

So now searches are cheaper than ever. An EPC costs between £80 to £120.

HIPs are a good thing.

Henry Pryor, who set up property website Primemove.com, has calculated that at least one in 10 of sellers do not have a HIP.

“About 130,000 houses went onto the market in May, but only 89,000 HIPS were commissioned,” he said.

He said some of this figure could include sellers remarketing their homes, but that “about 15,000 people put their house on the market without first commissioning a HIP”.

The HIP provides information at the beginning of the house buying process which includes documents previously supplied once a deal was struck. As essential documents are prepared and ready to be used in the conveyancing it can speed the process up and identify any issue that may cause concern at the outset, reducing the numbers of house sales falling through.