HIPs Question

going2die_rich

If your house is already on the market, and then you decide to change estate agents after August 1st when HIPs are being introduced for 4 bedroom houses, does that mean you have to get a HIP or does it still count as being on the market from when you first put it up for sale? (assuming you change from one estate agent to another the following day)

wecanhelpu

If you put it up for sale with a new agent, they are marketing the property "from scratch" so yes, you will need a HIP

Generali

Is there anything to stop the 4th bedroom becoming a 'study' or 'dressing room' (or vomitorium for that matter).

Eyesparky

Generali wrote: »

Is there anything to stop the 4th bedroom becoming a 'study' or 'dressing room' (or vomitorium for that matter).

Looks like they are going to usurp this by including 3 bedroom houses too. They have managed to spin themselves out of media attention on the issue though and that is ultimately all they care about.

tmm_aka_tracy

Im trying to get my house on the market, four beds. The agent said I cant pretend that its anything other than four beds... the goverment have supposedly stopped the loophole. (I must say though, they guy was horrible and seemed so far up his own ar*e it is untrue).

HTH

lynzpower

Eyesparky wrote: »

Looks like they are going to usurp this by including 3 bedroom houses too. They have managed to spin themselves out of media attention on the issue though and that is ultimately all they care about.

My understanding of this is that the 4 beds are being introduced on the 1st Aug, but then 3 beds coming v shortly after ( within a few weeks)

I think its fair to say it remains unclear whats going to happen at this stage , the industry is stilll awaiting finalisation of the product itself.

Doozergirl

The 'loophole' is merely the fact that there is no proper definition of what a bedroom is.

EAs will make money from HIPs, and they won't want to get into trouble for saving a vendor a couple of hundred pounds. Buyers looking for four bedrooms are not going to be that up on HIPs that they start sifting through all the three beds on the market to decipher whether they are a four bed in disguise.

Even if you get an offer accepted, I can see issues arising.

I can't see anyone pulling it off particularly successfully.

I can't see the government pulling off HIPS particularly successfully either!

going2die_rich

We actually bought our house as a 4 bedroom house (which is on the mortgage papers for the valuation from 10 years ago), however one of the rooms comes off a master bedroom and is so small it's really either a nursery or a dressing room. Which is what the current estate agent is marketing it as. So I guess we can just say it's 3 bedrooms with a dressing room (we've already got a study downstairs) so we don't have to do the HIPs (at least this time)

MissMotivation

Although there is no legal definition of a bedroom surely the financial gain from marketing the property as a 4 Bedroom rather than a 3 Bed plus study would far outweigh the cost of a HIP ?

wecanhelpu

going2die_rich wrote: »

We actually bought our house as a 4 bedroom house (which is on the mortgage papers for the valuation from 10 years ago), however one of the rooms comes off a master bedroom and is so small it's really either a nursery or a dressing room. Which is what the current estate agent is marketing it as. So I guess we can just say it's 3 bedrooms with a dressing room (we've already got a study downstairs) so we don't have to do the HIPs (at least this time)

Don't speak too soon

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages/article.html?in_article_id=421616&in_page_id=8

going2die_rich

MissMotivation wrote: »

Although there is no legal definition of a bedroom surely the financial gain from marketing the property as a 4 Bedroom rather than a 3 Bed plus study would far outweigh the cost of a HIP ?

Saying 3 bedroom on the paper doesn't mean the 4th room can't be a bedroom. Anyone viewing it would know it coudl easily be a bedroom if it meets their needs. Just like our study could be a downstairs bedroom also making it a 5 bedroom house if you needed it to be.