home information packs June 1st.

Phirefly

Will they save the buyer any money? Assuming most will opt out of the non-mandatory survey, anybody got any idea how will they benefit the buyer financially?

mystic_trev

I actually think that as the HIP surveyor will be doing the "energy survey" anyway, they'll offer to include the HCR at an attractive price.

mystic_trev

It looks like the introduction might be postponed? I know a number of potential HIP surveyors decided not to continue their courses one the HCR component was droped. Now looks like there won't be many left to do the energy survey!

From BBC website - today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6090336.stm

BobProperty

jawa1 wrote:

Just to clarify for others... the Packs are still mandatory aren’t they? what is optional is the surveys(home condition report). Will still have to get the local search etc done.

I agree the packs will be mandatory, the HCR will be voluntary.

The practical objections/problems are, as Trev has pointed out, that there aren't (and never were) enough trained inspectors to do the work. A lot will have abandoned their training courses, or at least suspended them while they find alternative employment, etc. *
As I always go on about, I have yet to hear that any home inspector has liability insurance.

(* Kirsty Allsopp was going to campaign for trainees to get compensation following the withdrawal of the mandatory element of the HIPs wasn't she? )

courtjester

To answer the original enquiry, the HIP will include standard searches (environmental, water, local) but not any additional searches that may be required or recommended for a particular property (such as a mining search).

If you put your property on the market BEFORE 1 June 2007, you will NOT be required to have a HIP in place until NOVEMBER 2007 (6 months later). This is likely to involve a rush to sell before the June deadline to avoid the cost of implementing a pack.

However, the reality is that pack costs will probably be funded by the pack providers and only paid for once the property is sold, so it is unlikely that many vendors will need to worry about the cost, although vendors will remain liable for the cost if the property is not sold. It is likely that once momentum of HIPS gets going, most buyers will expect properties to come with a pack in place, so even on a voluntary basis it will make good marketing sense to have the packs arranged in advance of the compulsory period.

There is no way that the government is going to cancel the implementation of HIPs. They may change the compulsory elements, but the essential reason that packs have been introduced (from the start) is to satisfy the government's obligations to the EU to provide energy reports on every property in the UK - this is the sole reason that HIPS have come about, although the government have consistently tried to cover up this fact by suggesting that packs will improve the selling /buying process (it won't deal with any of the main problems such as gazumping etc).

It is only now that (conveniently) the government are coming clean about the energy certificate, only because with all the attention and debate on climate change, it now *looks* like they are doing something positive by playing up this element as a benefit of the pack.

In Denmark, their system has compulsory home information packs which work very well, but they have an insurance system which guarantees the content and laws which make the vendor responsible for any defects unless they provide the insurance. Further changes in the law would be required before a similar system could operate here, hence the preliminary UK HIPs will not be as effective or useful as they are in Denmark due to poor implementation.