Helping Innovate Property (HIP) – Blog, Housing Market News and Articles

With the conservative’s conference now finished and the focussed rallying of political troops coming to a natural lull we now see further reflection of the speeches and recently published papers.

Grant Shapps always provides some interest though feel he often lacks solid reasoning and/or alternatives to areas he dislikes. He is undoubtedly advised on certain areas though in regard to Home Information Packs and Energy Performance Certificates he just seems to be taking a ‘party line’; stating what he hopes the nation wants to hear.

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Home Information Packs (HIPs) have undoubtedly received some bad press since their introduction which has been mainly initiated by a number of staunch anti-HIP groups. However, over time and with increased understanding and research we have seen these protesters diminish and numbers grow in support of the Home Information Pack. As people witness the benefits of the HIP these numbers will surely grow and the perceived negative start to the life of the HIP, progress and develop further into an essential and beneficial part of the property conveyancing process.

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Welcome to Mike Ockenden, Chairman of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) who has kindly agreed to spread a bit of light on how he sees the past and future of all things HIP related.
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One of the ‘cheapest’ Home Information Pack (HIP) providers who were favourably named in last months edition of Which have ‘withdrawn’ from the HIP market.

This demise has been inevitable for many of the cheap HIP providers including Promise Home Packs and we highlighted concerns last month in the article ‘Be aware of cheap, budget HIP & EPC providers‘. Promise are not the first HIP supplier to have left the market and certainly will not be the last.

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Repaying your mortgage early can save you substantial amounts in interest payments and could be a great financial investment at present. With interest rates at their lowest in decades now maybe the time to increase your mortgage repayments or consider paying off a lump sum.

Before you arrange to make overpayments it is important to check a few details, do your homework and understand the pros and cons whichever type of mortgage you have and/or are considering.
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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.

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Home information Packs have received a positive response from associated industry professionals who are utilising and seeing the benefits of the legislation.

A recent poll which comprised of over 150 housing industry professionals, ranging from estate agents to mortgage lenders and property investors voted in favour of the Home Information Pack legislation and continued development at the Land Data Great Housing Market Debate.

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As of today we now have some subtle changes to the Home Information Pack legislation that could bring added benefit to the exisiting HIP via some modifications including the Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) which is now a required document.

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The Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) will be shortly rolled out after the draft version was produced and the related consultation was completed and added to the legislation.

There does not seem to have been vast modification to the document and legislation since we published the last article regarding the Property Information Questionnaire in August. However, the planned implementation of the PIQ was intended for the the 1st January 2009 however this has been delayed to 6th April 2009 to allow the industry to prepare for the addition to the Home Information Pack Legislation.

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This week has seen news released about developments of Home Information Packs and has given rise to speculation about Home Condition Reports (HCR) making a suprise return. The main topics and news within Magaret Beckett’s statement; industry professionals and associated organisation had some expectation of though we were all unsure of the exact timing until recently.

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It is fair to say that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) have never been the greatest admirers of Home Information Pack legislation. It is envisaged that this week they will combine efforts when putting their views forward to the Government to attack HIPS once again.

The latest stance is one of focussed criticism towards the searches within the Home Information Pack whilst seemingly and suprisingly asking for some aspects to remain and apparently agreeing that the planned Property Information Questionnaire (P.I.Q.) would be useful.

RICS’ director of external affairs, Gillian Charlesworth, said: “These legal documents (searches) must be taken out of the packs and left to buyers and their advisers to obtain at the appropriate time during the transaction.” RICS wants HIPs to be replaced with a voluntary report as per the Carsberg report.
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