How important is the HIP

wessexw

Am interested in a property at the moment, but the estate agent keeps sending me the HIP which belongs to the previous sale of this property early last year, and not the HIP for the current sale. He keeps dodging direct contact from me when I try to pin him down over the HIP while at the same time sending me emails pushing me to put an offer on asap. Am I right in thinking that the HIP is a legal document and so MUST list the current vendor of the property (and not the vendor of the previous sale), or is it more of a 'nice to have' document?

Thanks

princessamy86

Legal document and there must be a new one for each sale. Can I just check my assumption is right though: house sold last year, new owner now selling? Why (nosy sorry!)? Agent is in breach of HIP legislation if they do not have a current HIP available to you, you can report them to trading standards.

wessexw

There's a good reason for the current owners moving on so soon if their story is true - of course no way of checking for sure if it's true. The EA got back at last and said that the HIP is current as it's not that old, I pointed out the fact that it lists the wrong vendor seeing as it's the old one and he kind of went 'oh' and said he'd get back to me.

ln1234

From what our solicitors told us, the searches in a HIP are only valid for 3 months. Not sure if that applies the rest of the document though.

princessamy86

Well...the HIP contains the official copy of register of title so that's definitely out of date. "Not that old"? The EA is having a laugh, they need to read up on the HIP legislation, and fast. The EPC is the only thing which can be re-used, as they are valid for 3 years.

ginvzt

If they are pressing you to put an offer in, just tell them you might once you saw the up-to-date HIP, not before. If they are part of some national organisation, you might mention that you are considering call that organisation to find out more about how 'old' is the 'not so old' HIP they provided to you.

princessamy86

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?r.s=sc&r.l1=1073858799&r.lc=en&r.l3=1081564218&r.l2=1081626981&r.i=1081597649&type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081597881&r.t=RESOURCES lots of info there.

wessexw

The water and drainage search is over a year old too, I presume thats too old?

G_M

ln1234 wrote: »

From what our solicitors told us, the searches in a HIP are only valid for 3 months. Not sure if that applies the rest of the document though.

Depends what is meant by 'valid'.

Valid in a HIP? Wrong. They are valid much longer. See below.

Valid as a reliable source of information to satisfy a solicitor? Correct. Many solicitors will insist on more up-to-date searches than the HIP provides so will re-do the search (at their client - the buyer's - expence)

From Gov site:

"How long does a HIP last for?
While the property is on the market, there is no need to update the HIP. If the sale of your property stops and then starts again, you may have to compile a new HIP and provide up-to-date documents.
However, you can carry on using the same HIP without the need to update any of the documents where:

• marketing stopped because an offer was accepted and the sale has fallen through (but remarketing must start within one year of the date when marketing first began or, if later, within 28 days of the sale falling through)
• marketing has stopped for any other reason and the seller remarkets the property within one year of the date when marketing first began.

The effect of this is that the HIP has a shelf-life of at least 12 months for the seller."

MissMotivation

wessexw wrote: »

Am interested in a property at the moment, but the estate agent keeps sending me the HIP which belongs to the previous sale of this property early last year, and not the HIP for the current sale. He keeps dodging direct contact from me when I try to pin him down over the HIP while at the same time sending me emails pushing me to put an offer on asap. Am I right in thinking that the HIP is a legal document and so MUST list the current vendor of the property (and not the vendor of the previous sale), or is it more of a 'nice to have' document?

Thanks

If he keeps pressurising you to make an offer tell him that you will make an offer once you have seen a current, compliant HIP and that if he doesn't provide this then you will do two things.

1) Notify Trading Standards that he is marketing properties without a compliant HIP
2) Notify the Vendor that the EA is being obstructive and preventing you from moving forward on the property.

I get quite angry about EA's not having compliant HIPs......as you can probably tell :mad:

princessamy86

I also get angry....HIP legislation is a total pain in the behind, and whilst other agents follow rules, it seems a few think they can get away with it.