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

A right over a piece of land for the benefit of another piece of land, such as a right of way or a right to use services running under the land is called an “easement”. The land which benefits from an easement is called the “dominant tenement” or “dominant land” and the land which is subject to the easement is the “servient tenement” or “servient land”. There are several ways in which an easement can be created and once it exists then subject to certain exceptions, it exists for all time for the benefit of the dominant land.

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Ever since it became commonplace for the ordinary men and women on the street to own their homes many law firms have seized on this huge market and placed great emphasis on their conveyancing departments. The resulting competition for work means that it is now possible to pay as little as £200 in legal fees and indeed, to pay nothing at all if the proposed sale or purchase never proceeds to completion.

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Grant Shapps would have hoped that the contentious issue of Home Information Packs would have quietly slipped away into the background. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Yesterday, both Hywel Williams MP and the Institute of Domestic Energy Assessors slammed the coalition governments handling of the HIP suspension.

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In 1999 a father and son were so frustrated with the delays from local councils in providing local searches to enable them to buy a house they went to the council and searched the records to produce their own search. Realising there was a business potential there the father and son contact a couple of solicitor friends and with their help started a personal search company.

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Eric Pickles has finally granted Mr Shapps’s long held desire to suspend HIPs this morning, though it remains unclear on what basis. Grant Shapps who has increasing appeared to be on personal crusade to scrap HIPs has seemingly suceeded and issued a statement shortly afterwards.

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Despite recent rumours and ill informed articles to the contrary, it is still ‘business as usual’ in the HIP industry – for now at least. Since the new Government confirmed that they planned to scrap HIPs whilst retaining the Energy Performance Certificate (they have no choice in this – it’s required by European Directive), there has been constant talk about if and when the requirement for a Home Information Pack will be abolished.

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In our latest article in a series de-mystifying property conveyancing we focus on the Land Registry system and how property and land is registered.

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The Conservative and Liberal Democrats have published their initial coalition agreement which will be followed in due course by a final coalition agreement.

The Lib-Con Coalition Agreement published makes reference to Energy Performance Certificates and Home Information Packs under section 11 on the environment.

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A jointly owned property involves various areas of property law which should be considered and we expand on in our latest article de-mystifying property conveyancing.

The word “estate” in relation to a piece of land is used to describe the bundle of rights, covenants, charges and other interests associated with it.

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In our guide to shared ownership property we look at various aspects; from some frequently used phrases to more less understood technical explanations and definitions.

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Recently with the rise in repossessions and the property market remaining relatively weak, more and more people are turning to auctions as a way of picking up a bargain. This guide will hopefully help you to avoid some of the common pitfalls when buying properties at auction.

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