HIP expired

SuperSaverSue_2 · 27 October 2008 at 10:25AM

Just had letter from our solicitor with a covering letter from buyers solicitor, it states that our HIP has now expired, surely it cant have done since april?

Do I have to pay for a new one?

dekh · 27 October 2008 at 10:40AM

HIPs don't expire but there are time sensitive items within the HIP. Namely the local searches expire after 6 months.

As far as I'm aware you are not compelled to renew these searches but there are HIP experts who will know the real answer.

In the good old days, pre HIP, it was the buyers responsibility to ensure that what they were buying wasn't a dead duck. Caveat emptor and all that. HIPs changed that around a bit in an effort to speed up the selling process. (I don't think that it is any faster post HIP than pre HIP.)

It looks like it is down to you to decide. Do you pay for the searches to ensure the sale in the current market or do you refuse making the other party pay save a few quid and put your sale at risk?

edit
There may be an alternative which is No Search Insurance. The main objector to this would probably be the buyers lender but as far as I know Egg are the only ones who refuse it. No Search insurance can be set up in a fraction of the time and cost of local searches. Worth a shot to speed the sale.
/edit

PasturesNew · 27 October 2008 at 12:11PM

If it were me, and if it were allowed, I'd simply state that I'd organise new searches once a surveyor appointment had been booked. The original ones would still be available, so that'd show there wasn't anything I was trying to hide.