Home Information Packs
Going nowhere fast: Rush hour in Weymouth Harbour.
HIPs have finally pulled into the station...or have they?
HIPs were supposed to come into effect on 1 June 2007.
Major new changes were announced on 8 December 2008.
They got a new starting date of 1 August 2007 - but only for properties with four or more bedrooms. All other properties were to be included as of 14 December 2007 - except that leasehold properties with one and two bedrooms were granted a temporary reprieve (only the lease had to be provided as part of the HIP).
The government provided yet another starting date: "From 1 January 2008 a seller or their agent will have to obtain the Energy Performance Certificate and other key documents before they put their home on the market, unless there are exceptional circumstances or delays in getting hold of searches or leasehold documents." (Emphasis added)
Unimpeachable Source of Information
A government website details HIPs for buyers and, separately, for sellers (www.homeinormationpacks.gov.uk).
KYA - Know Your Acronyms
HCR: Home Condition Reports—the backbone of HIPs as originally conceived—are surveys reporting the basic condition of the property.
DEA: Domestic Energy Assessor. What kind of insulation does the property have, and how efficient is it? How efficient is the boiler? What overall grade for energy conservation does the property earn?
A specially trained DEA inspects the property and submits an energy assessment (an EPC) as part of the HIP. By the summer of 2007, around 1500 DEAs became accredited, and more than 4000 were completing their training.
EPC: Energy Performance Certificate.
CLG: Communities and Local Government (formerly known as the ODPM: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) is the government department responsible for administering HIPs.
How Hip are HIPs?
The Law Society says that home sellers and buyers should be vigilant with HIPs, after the government noted that some rogue HIP providers are putting the wrong documents in the packs.
In 2008, Trading Standards Officers in Birmingham examined a random selection of HIPs and found that 5 out of 6 of them contained incomplete or inadequate local surveys despite the fact that Birmingham City Council makes all of their search information readily available.
Advice from moveme.com
After you (the seller) have chosen the company that will prepare your HIP, "ask them if they can add any property information and 'fixtures and fittings' forms to the pack - as these are one of the reasons the legals can be slow." www.moveme.com
Main Facts and Features of HIPs
[UPDATE NOVEMBER 2008: The estate agent ombudsman notes that some vendors do not realise that they have contracted to pay for a HIP even if their property fails to sell or they withdraw it from the market.]
HIPs will not be required for all properties; for example, tenanted flats are exempt.
Sellers will need to commission a HIP when they start marketing their home. In other words, they do not have to produce the actual pack on the first day the property goes onto the market.
In addition, there is no clear definition of when a property starts being marketed. Prior to the 1 June 2007 start date in some areas, some homeowners put notices in news-agents' window solely to be able to claim that they started marketing their home before that cut-off date.
HIPs will contain these items:
Other compulsory documents: