Home Information Pack - how much?

moyville

The new Home Improvement Pack comes into place on June 1st 2007. There is a good chance my house will be for sale after that date. What is it all about? What will I have to do? How much additional cost will I incur with the HIP?

Any thoughts from solicitors, estate agents, sellers welcome...

Thanks in advance

shelly

Just read this in my local paper, on the property pages.

"Any property that is on the market "For Sale" before 1st June 2007 will not require a HIP. Legislation will allow sellers an interim period until 31st March 2008, to sell their property, as long as the "first point of marketing" was before 1st June 2007."

The EA page the above quote came from also said that they will expect HIP's to cost around £400+vat.

This following link tells you what is included in the HIP http://www.hips-sellers-pack.co.uk/index.html

dnwilliams

AS A SELLER :

You will have to pay for a Pack (average cost £500) before you can put your home on the market from June 1st this year.

You, or your agent, will be a law-breaker liable to a daily fine of £200 if caught trying to sell your home without a Pack, or for the first 14 days if your Pack is ordered but hasn't arrived (this means no advert, no board, no flyers not even a chat in the pub).

A new Jobsworth has been created by Labour, called an "Energy Inspector" who will visit your home at your cost, but before you are allowed to market it. The Inspector will prepare an Energy Performance Certificate by poking around your home from basement to loft, ostensibly assessing your home's 'green credentials' . This EPC report will be put in to your Home Information Pack. Remember - no Pack, no marketing.

The 8 page EPC report on your home (that you've paid for) along with legal information about you and your home, will be centrally recorded by government and will be available for inspection electronically by goodness knows who, for goodness knows what purposes.

If your Home Information Pack (HIP) doesn't arrive for 14 days (perhaps because of lack of Energy Inspectors countrywide) and you have therefore been unable to market your home, you may lose the next property you wished to buy. If you lose it, there will be no refund of your HIP costs AND the government will keep all the details on you and your home that you have paid for, on their database.

Hippychick

It may be worth asking around some agents when you come to sell.

I have a feeling some agents will offer free HIPS as an incentive to sign you up and you then pay for the Hip when the house is sold, ie similar to no move no fee deals.

But rough figures are approx £500.00 (freehold) with a fine for both you and the agent if the house is marketed without the HIP.

moyville

Another cash cow for vested interests then ... t'riffic :rolleyes:

seven-day-weekend

I find it difficult to believe that you are not allowed to market YOUR house as and when YOU want to.

What's supposed to be the point of this stupid rule?

Canucklehead

Good morning: The requirement for an EPC is part of an EU directive http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2003/l_001/l_00120030104en00650071.pdf and isn't going away! More info on HIPS is available here http://www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk/home.aspx

HTH

Canucklehead

BobProperty

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I find it difficult to believe that you are not allowed to market YOUR house as and when YOU want to.

What's supposed to be the point of this stupid rule?

To make the selling process easier and simpler wasn't it? Quote off the government website "Better Buying, Simpler Selling". Much simpler isn't it where there is only one approved category of person who can write a HIP.

I predict a few properties for sale will suddenly fall into the exempt categories too, like a detached house might suddenly be suitable for demolition and redevelopment.

BobProperty

Been looking at the draft rules and other related things. The fine for not providing a HIP when selling is £200, I can not find a £200 "per day" except in "puff" related to HIPs. What I now also believe is that you can only be prosecuted within 6 months of the breach. So, unless Trading Standards get round to you within 6 months of you stopping marketing the property (note I didn't say selling it) then a prosecution would fail. Anyway £200 is cheaper than HIPs are expected to be.

I am further getting the feeling that the Energy Performance Certificate that has to be done for the EU may not fit in with the timescales originally envisaged. The EU requires these certificates to be renewed every 10 years. We turn over 1m house sales a year and have a housing stock of about 20m properties (IIRC), so only about half the houses will have a certificate in 10 years time. Ooops. :eek:

zag2me

moyville wrote: »

Another cash cow for vested interests then ... t'riffic :rolleyes:

Maybe, but it will help buyers. And for that reason I am all for it.

Governments don't introduce these things for the sake of it, they are trying to solve a problem. I say well done to them for having the balls to do it, but lets see how it goes first.

BobProperty

zag2me wrote: »

Maybe, but it will help buyers. And for that reason I am all for it.

The only thing I can see HIPs doing is dissuade people from putting their property on the market "to see what they can get for it". I would like you, or anyone else, to convince me of any other improvement.

zag2me wrote: »

Governments don't introduce these things for the sake of it, they are trying to solve a problem. I say well done to them for having the balls to do it, but lets see how it goes first.

They are not solving a problem, they are complying with EU regulations that they agreed to several years ago. They are hiding them in these regulations and pretending it is an improvement to the house buying process, it isn't.