Hips

hungary97_2

what effect do you thin that HIPS will have on the market in June

Generali

Presumably a small jump in houses on the market just before they come in and a commensurate fall afterwards.

I don't think they'll have much of an effect on prices, personally.

cambsman

Generali wrote:

Presumably a small jump in houses on the market just before they come in and a commensurate fall afterwards.

I don't think they'll have much of an effect on prices, personally.

yes given all the other costs involved, and prices apparently going up £500 a week, i dont see why the CML are getting their knickers in a twist about it so much.

aqueoushumour01

as long as they're taken seriously by the industry, they will surely be of great benefit to buyers. Currently buyers (should) take out a survey for each house they're considering. With HIPS, the buyer only pays the cost of one survey, namely for the house they end up purchasing, on the assumption that sellers raise the asking price by the amount the HIP costs. I think it's reasonable to assume that sellers will build that new expense into their asking price.

I'm sure that there will be schemes where the seller pays the cost of the HIP once the property sells (or perhaps a bit more to offset the risk that some properies won't sell for a long period of time) but even if sellers have to pay an upfront charge, would this really prevent them putting their house on the market? I have my doubts. I therefore don't subscribe to the train of thought that there will be fewer houses on the market thereby forcing prices up.

Jennifer_Jane

I thought the surveys weren't going to be included in the HIPs?

Also, my house was on the market for a year, will the surveys be valid for a certain period of time? I know that since my house was on the market, quite a lot of things have gone wrong eg central heating problems.

Honestly, I've bought houses in South Africa and there are absolutely no problems with gazumping and so on there. HIPs are not the way to avoid that, what is required is a similar process whereby the original offer to buy/sell is binding subject to survey/mortgage or whatever. But once that is done, everyone should be able to sit back and relax - the house is sold/bought! Friends also suggest a similar thing occurs in Spain and perhaps elsewhere? Trust the Government to over-engineer their solutions to things (think Pensions!).

Gorgeous_George

I think they are nonsense and just another tax.

They're not even going to be undertaken by qualified surveyors. If I was investing £100K or more, I'd only read my own survey.



GG

tonydee

Lets just clarify the survey part has been excluded from HIP's.

clutton_2

there is so much opposition to these stupid things by lenders etc that i suspect they will die a quiet death

aqueoushumour01

tonydee wrote:

Lets just clarify the survey part has been excluded from HIP's.

In that case I retract what I wrote. I wasn't aware that HIPS no longer include a survey. Pretty pointless in that case then and an unnecessary expense for sellers.

Tiger_greeneyes

The only thing I can see HIPS will be good for is additional information for the prospective purchaser - oh, and raising revenue for the Government.

The purchasers mortgage lender won't take any notice of it, however, they will still want their reports done. As far as I can tell there's no legal weight to HIPS - can someone put me straight on this if I'm wrong please!

It seems to me that it's just like traditional estate agents details, only slightly more formal and a little more in-depth.

Does anyone know what qualifications the HIPS inspectors need to have? They're being formally trained but I'm not sure what background they come from.

cambsman

aqueoushumour01 wrote:

In that case I retract what I wrote. I wasn't aware that HIPS no longer include a survey. Pretty pointless in that case then and an unnecessary expense for sellers.

Yes, theyre now basically just to make sure a house is 'efficient' and nothing to do with its structural shape. So long as the house doesnt hurt the planet it doesnt matter whether it falls down or not!