Warning for anyone near completion

Richard_Webster

You have to distinguish between what the government require to be in a HIP and what is insured. It certainly shouldn't be necessary for all searches automatically to be repeated merely because a transaction has run over after 6th April!

If the HIP is commissioned on or after 6th April a local search in it has to have the complete set of answers about things like Building Regulations which were previously the subject of insurance by private search providers. That means because they couldn't get the information before they insured people who relied on the search against any adverse consequences. The government has now told Councils they must provide the information, although they can charge for it, hence the increase in the cost of searches through search agencies.

As far as I understand it, the insurance companies have not withdrawn the cover, so if you complete a transaction relying on a search carried out in the past three months then you would still be insured for any loss that might arise because you proceeded in ignorance of some adverse matter that might have been shown.

HIPs have not always been to do with providing buyers' requirements (does the average buyer really want an EPC?) so a buyer's solicitor's duties to his client and lender are not the same as the requirement that a seller in any new HIP now provides more information.

Some solicitors have taken the view that personal searches were inadequate anyway, but that is a separate issue.

What it doesn't mean is that the mere fact that a transactions has run on after 6th April requires a search to be repeated. If a solicitor was not happy with a personal search he would have repeated it with the Council anyway. If he was happy, then there is no reason to repeat it.

VSOL

Hi Richard

Wonder if you can help me?? I am thinking of getting a HIPS Pack through one of the many internet sites that are available, any words of warning??

Cheers

Ann