As a seller, have you been given wrong information about HIPs?

MissMotivation

Apart from MSE'ers I believe the general public to be misinformed about HIPs.

As an EA I believe part of my job is to be informed about any rules and regulations that come into force, therefore, I know the regulations inside out/back to front etc. So why is it acceptable for many EA's to give the public completely wrong information about HIPs?

I have, today, lost an instruction because an agent has told a potential Vendor that they can use a HIP commissioned 2 years ago, after being off the market for 4 months! :eek: Trading Standards couldn't care less, so much for this fine.....I've never known an agent to be fined yet!

So...apart from the DirectGov website, where do people get their info from, if not from the people that are supposed to know what they are talking about?

wessexw

I posted on this forum a few weeks ago asking for help on exactly the same issue, I was interested in a property but the HIP was over a year old and did not even list the current vendor. The EA tried to tell me that it didn't matter, I had a lot of trouble getting proper advice on this, the forum here was actually the best help I got! I did ring trading standards and they confirmed to me that this HIP was essentially illegal and the property should not be on the market with it, but they didn't seem to really care and weren't interested in knowing who the EA was or anything like that.

Anyway, that same property sold very shortly after that so it still managed to go ahead despite the extremely dodgy HIP, so you'd wonder what the point is really.

MissMotivation

A lot of agents seemingly don't give a damn about being fined because Trading Standards don't investigate anything.

All this fuss about being fined £200 has amounted to nothing!

VIGILANT22

[QUOTE=MissMotivationout So why is it acceptable for many EA's to give the public completely wrong information about HIPs?

I have, today, lost an instruction because an agent has told a potential Vendor that they can use a HIP commissioned 2 years ago, after being off the market for 4 months! QUOTE]


Do you mean you lost it to another company??...........

Why don't you have a copy of the below in an info pack or in a lamintaed sheet on your desk...I would be inclined to post a copy to the prospective cleint you lost.....


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/BuyingAndSellingYourHome/Homeinformationpacks/DG_171803

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.

MissMotivation

VIGILANT22 wrote: »

[QUOTE=MissMotivationout So why is it acceptable for many EA's to give the public completely wrong information about HIPs?

I have, today, lost an instruction because an agent has told a potential Vendor that they can use a HIP commissioned 2 years ago, after being off the market for 4 months! QUOTE]


Do you mean you lost it to another company??...........

Why don't you have a copy of the below in an info pack or in a lamintaed sheet on your desk...I would be inclined to post a copy to the prospective cleint you lost.....


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/BuyingAndSellingYourHome/Homeinformationpacks/DG_171803

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.

Yes, lost it to another EA who told the Vendor they could use the same HIP. A letter has gone out to her in the post quoting the relevant facts, whether she chooses to take notice of it or not we will have to wait and see!

It's the second instruction we've lost to this particular EA :mad: for the same reason.

timmyt

can you still notify Trading Standards and the local press? cc each other on the letter so they know who you contact...oh and the local MP?

you will make the point that a buyer's lawyer will reject it and demand fresh searches at a resulting delay.

and with the Tories likely to win the election and scrapping HIps, no one cares to enforce.

hate to bore you...but is the breaching EA a national chain?

MissMotivation

timmyt wrote: »

can you still notify Trading Standards and the local press? cc each other on the letter so they know who you contact...oh and the local MP?

you will make the point that a buyer's lawyer will reject it and demand fresh searches at a resulting delay.

and with the Tories likely to win the election and scrapping HIps, no one cares to enforce.

hate to bore you...but is the breaching EA a national chain?

Hate to disappoint you Timmy but it's a local agent, one branch AND the guy who owns it is a DEA too!

The local press won't print anything detrimental to agents as they are the main source of income! The woman I spoke to as TS sounded bored so I have no faith it will be taken further.

timmyt

ouch. then writing direct is the only way. your standards will keep you in business far longer then them

G_M

Let's face it HIPs add little since they were watered down and surveys excluded. A minority of buyers look at them. In some (many?) cases searches are old so solicitors re-do them anyway. The whole system is an additional cost overhead and beaurocracy overhead with little benefit.

No wonder trading standards choose to focus their limited resources on more important areas: petrol pumps that under-deliver, children's toys that are dangerous; copies of branded goods on market stalls................. and on.

Yes it's annoying when professional agents follow the rules and other agents get away with not, but in the scale of things, not the end of the world.

MissMotivation

G_M wrote: »

Let's face it HIPs add little since they were watered down and surveys excluded. A minority of buyers look at them. In some (many?) cases searches are old so solicitors re-do them anyway. The whole system is an additional cost overhead and beaurocracy overhead with little benefit.

No wonder trading standards choose to focus their limited resources on more important areas: petrol pumps that under-deliver, children's toys that are dangerous; copies of branded goods on market stalls................. and on.

Yes it's annoying when professional agents follow the rules and other agents get away with not, but in the scale of things, not the end of the world.

I understand what you are saying G_M and in part, I agree. It's not the end of the world, just frustrating that agents are getting away with it.

I can only hope that the useless things are scrapped shortly!