HIPs Question

wecanhelpu

I really can't see the point of all these HIP avoidance tactics.

After all, we're talking about £400 and you will be spared the expense on the house you purchase


http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article1999206.ece

going2die_rich

wecanhelpu wrote: »

I really can't see the point of all these HIP avoidance tactics.

After all, we're talking about £400 and you will be spared the expense on the house you purchase


http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article1999206.ece

It's a case of it's a great idea when/if I'm buying, but it's not a good idea of when I am selling!

It's the difference between paying £400 or having it in your pocket, which would you choose?

Obviously for anyone just coming up to it, you'll try and avoid it. This time next year it wont be an issue since everyone will have to do it, so it's a natural cost to consider, but now it's a case of get it on now as a 3 bedroom and avoid it or wait a few months and have no way round it when 3 bedrooms are covered also.

Doozergirl

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)

Now that, I think, is right. I wouldn't class it as a bedroom. I don't think it's what most people would class as a bedroom if they were specifically looking for four beds. Particularly if the EA recommends advertsing as a 3 bed. Personally, I'd consider it a dressing room and/or potential ensuite.

will-he-payitoff

Would putting a classified ad in the local paper before 1 August class it as being on the market?

Generali

wecanhelpu wrote: »

I really can't see the point of all these HIP avoidance tactics.

After all, we're talking about £400 and you will be spared the expense on the house you purchase


http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article1999206.ece

If I was buying a house I'd want to commission everything myself too - caveat emptor. There's no saving to the buyer if the buyer is me.

courtjester

wecanhelpu wrote: »

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

This is completely incorrect - the requirement for HIPS has nothing to do with selling through an estate agent. The law refers only to 'marketing' of the property, and makes no mention of how a property is marketed - so that includes any form of marketing to the public, whether that be an agent, a newspaper ad, an online ad, a postcard in the window or your own for sale sign outside the property.

Consequently, it is irrelevant that you may change from one method to another during the course of selling a home.

If a property is on the market being actively marketed by any means prior to the 1 August, the vendor can benefit from the grace period and will not require to purchase a HIP until 1 January 2008, assuming the property is not sold by that date.

For properties marketed for the first time after 1 August, HIPS will definitely be required for 4 bedroom homes and probably 3 bedroom homes as well from that date or very soon after. The government have already demonstrated they are quite prepared to change their minds at short notice so the current rulings are all subject to change within the next 3 weeks.

There is still of course the possibility that HIPS will be scrapped as the only element really required is the energy certificate and there is really no need for this to be implemented at the point of marketing, where it can simply be incorporated as part of the normal conveyancing documentation required at completion.