MSE News: Home Information Packs scrapped

Wee_Willy_Harris

happylass5 wrote: »

I call on the governement to refund the hundreds of pounds paid for HIPs by those who have not yet sold their properties. These HIPs are now not worth the paper they are written on. What a waste of money!!!!

WOAH!!!! Not so fast giving away the taxpayers money!!!

timmyt

happylass5 wrote: »

I call on the governement to refund the hundreds of pounds paid for HIPs by those who have not yet sold their properties. These HIPs are now not worth the paper they are written on. What a waste of money!!!!

no they are not. they mean - if in date - you can exchange quickly and the Buyer can get ready to exchange quickly, leaving their own mortgage to arrive, rather than wait for searches to come in.

with an indate HIP, I can go straight to report to my client, without bothering the selling lawyers half the time.

without hips, I now need a search and will chase for the EPC and title and the Seller will not have a HIP to draw up the contract in the first place from...it slows it all down

shane42

happylass5 wrote: »

I call on the governement to refund the hundreds of pounds paid for HIPs by those who have not yet sold their properties. These HIPs are now not worth the paper they are written on. What a waste of money!!!!

the previous posts suggest overwise, epc and the land search it seems.

Mids_Costcutter

anneofthenorth wrote: »

As far as the EPC is concerned, I hope people will now deal directly with energy assessors - who are specialists in this field - and I hope they will actually read the EPCs and take heed of the recommendations. If you are buying a house, read the EPC. It will tell you how much your fuel costs are likely to be in the new house and how to reduce them.

Hopefully over the longer term EPCs will drive improved building standards for better insulation and more efficient heating systems.

shane42

Mids_Costcutter wrote: »

Hopefully over the longer term EPCs will drive improved building standards for better insulation and more efficient heating systems.

building regs already do that now, modern loft conversion for example are so well insulated heating is rarely req, the same should be for new builds

DFW2

I would also welcome a government refund, we paid on Monday and received the interim today, we have been trying to get our house on the market since the 7th of May. :mad:

iamcornholio

It was a good idea, but poorly thought out and implemented.

I really feel sorry for all the wanna-be surveyors who paid £000's for a few days training in order to produce some ticksheets. The promise of lots of work and high-earnings was never really going to happen. What a shame, what a mess.

The only real issue in the house sale process is that of gazumping. That is what needs to be sorted out.

It does not matter one bit whether the seller or buyer gets the information which was in the HIP, nor does it matter who pays for it - either way the cost of this information is always absorbed within the sale price (added by the seller) or purchase price (deducted by the buyer)

Kerstey

We had a HIP done a couple of months ago and chose to defer the payment until 9 months after or when the house was sold - whichever came first. We had to take our house off the market as I had got a new job, and we have to pay for the HIP in November for a house that we're not selling!!!

Are we still going to have to pay for it?? (It's a long shot I know..)

Optimist

Kerstey wrote: »

We had a HIP done a couple of months ago and chose to defer the payment until 9 months after or when the house was sold - whichever came first. We had to take our house off the market as I had got a new job, and we have to pay for the HIP in November for a house that we're not selling!!!

Are we still going to have to pay for it?? (It's a long shot I know..)

They did the job you contracted for, so yes.

vet8

mmillie wrote: »

As someone who has recently gone through the moving process, I agree that HIPs are a complete waste of time. Why?

1) No-one changes their house buying decision based on an energy certificate. It isn't like fridges or TVs where the rest of the features are similar. With houses, so much more varies between two houses that the energy certificate just isn't useful. A personalized plan to improve the energy efficiency would be useful, but that wasn't part of the HIP

2) The searches are not trusted. If you sell quickly, the searches won't be done in time (HIP providers do it on the cheap and take ages to get searches in my experience), and if you sell slowly the searches can't be relied on any more. It's just doubling the number of searches that need to be done.

3) There is no survey included, so you have no idea if there is a problem with the property that would put you off buying.

HIPs were therefore a complete waste of money. They created an industry that wasn't needed, adding cost and inconvenience for everyone in the chain.

Personally I hope they do a proper reform of the housing market. Very few countries have this long drawn out process where anyone can back out at any time. In some countries you are committed to buy when you make an offer, and one side needs to compensate the other if you pull out. In some countries you actually buy straight away and the current owner rents from you for 3 months while they find somewhere. There's lots of better solutions that work well elsewhere, but England's system is just rubbish, and HIPs were a far too timid attempt at reform.

Martin

Excellent post.

HIPs were a typical Labour disaster. They were brought in against all the advice of those who are experts in house selling, they were another unnecessary level of paperwork and bureaucracy and they were an added charge on working families. Those who are scroungers will rarely have a house to sell so it those who work and pay taxes etc. who were hit by yet another Labour tax.

The buyer's solicitor is unlikely to rely on the seller's searches and they can be out of date quickly. If the search is done today for the HIP and then tomorrow my neighbour submits a PP for a huge extension this will not show in the HIP. Our HIP was commisioned more than 2 months ago, a great deal can change in that time so the buyer is bound to do their own searches and as they are the buyer they should pay for it and not me.

I think the EPC is also a waste of time as it is too tick box. Our energy assessor admitted that he had no idea what to do about our house as we have no central heating. There was nowhere on the form to record our open fire or our very efficient Rayburn that heats the kitchen, the hot water and I cook on, all for the same fuel. Also, counting how many low energy light bulbs you have is a total joke as I could change them the second he walks out of the door.

House buying in this country definitely needs reforming, but HIPS were the wrong idea.