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

This week has been eventful for sure in the continued life of Home Information Packs. HIPS are now 1 year old and news headlines continue to be made from the debate on Home Information Packs (HIPS). Recently, significant reports of non-compliance of the legislation have come to light and been acknowledged by leading figures involved within the industry.

Yesterday, it was widely reported by many news agencies including the BBC that some agents, I must stress only ‘some’ agents; are flouting the law and are proceeding to market properties without the legally required Home information Packs.

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Home Information Packs (HIPS) are now a year old this week. The past year certainly has been controversial at times for HIP packs as the legislation has been rolled out; which lets be honest was to be expected. Home information packs have been reported upon as often is the case in the UK press with a negative slant. The legislation has unfortunately become a ‘political football’ with the debate showing little signs in slowing.

Home information Packs were designed to provide information to the home buyer, speed up transaction times and reduce the number of failed completions. Home information Packs or as they will be known Home Reports are due to be implemented in Scotland from December this year.

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The Carsbergy Review, written by the author Sir Bryan Carsberg is recommending a  number of reforms for the property buying and selling industry of the residential property sector in England and Wales.

The Carsberg Review was commissioned by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA). This fact has brought into question the independence of the report and the following findings contained within it.

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The domestic energy assessment seems to still hold myths about what is and is not invloved. We receive questions and concerns from owners fairly regularly. So we have written this post to help explain what an Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) will be looking at during the visit.

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A new £10 million package of measures to support home owners who may be facing difficulties with their mortgage, is announced today by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling and Housing Minister Caroline Flint.
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The Government today announced a package of measures to help ensure consumers are seeing the vital information in Home Information Packs and are receiving a higher standard of service in the home buying and selling process.
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The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the residential sales arm of the National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP), is disappointed that first day marketing is not going to be scrapped completely, but welcomes the move by the Minister for Housing and Planning to work with the industry to make HIPs more effective.
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The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) has welcomed today’s statement by Housing Minister, Caroline Flint.

The extension of the transitional arrangements covering first day marketing and leasehold documentation is a sensible move. It is encouraging to see that government recognises the issues around timely procurement of searches and leasehold information that Home Information Packs (HIPs) have highlighted, and are taking steps to address these issues by the end of the year.
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As anticipated the 1st day of marketing exception has been extended for HIP provision.

Read the Home Information Pack news release which details this amongst other proposed measures.

I would have welcomed the exception being removed as we are able to produce HIP packs efficiently and fairly rapidly as alot of independents are. I felt we may have won additional business without this exception. Organisations and individuals would have valued the service and quick turnaround to a higher degree if the exception had been removed as planned.

However, it has been almost common knowledge it was to be extended, so comes as no suprise.