Home InformationPacks

iantjackson

I understand that in spite of there being a legal requirement to have one, HIPs are actually a waste of time and money. Butif I have to have one to sell my house, where can I get the cheapest one?

david29dpo

Estate agents will most likely be the dearest. Plenty of private suppliers around from about £250.

Bonbon

Christopher Hall estate agents (don't know what area they're in) are offering free HIP's, so I presume others will follow. Of course you can always ask any agent, as competition is fierce between them. Although their commission might be probably higher to cover the cost.

chriserenity

Yes, watch the free ones - read the fine print.

Is it tied in to expensive conveyancing?
Can you take the pack with you if you decide to switch agents?
What happens if the house doesn't sell?
Is it free as in interest free credit for x months?

I have seen all the above.

If you buy one yourself then you own it and its 100% portable between agents. Depending on the supplier the searches may or may not come with free renewal/update so although technically the packs can be used to market properties for up to a year they could in practice only be valid for six months resulting in costly re-ordering for the seller or even worse ordering for the buyer if the pack provider won't foot the bill!

Be careful out there!

Bonbon

:rotfl: :rotfl:

david29dpo

As said above, A hip is valid for 12 months but the searches it contains will be out of date after 5-6 months. Most buyers solicitors will insist these are renewed, updated after that time and this is where the problems could start. The seller is under no obligation to pay for new searches leaving a buyer with fairly useless hip. As hips have only been going since august, it will be interesting to see what happens. The agents i deal with are trying to get the sellers to update the searches if their house takes this long to sell so the hip for-fills its job and the buyers are happy and a quick completion takes place.

Alison-J_2

Just gone on the market too.

Took MSE advise on HIP's and got one for under £300 from monkeymove.com and have found it to be a great service for what I think is a waste of time and money but it had to be done.

Everything is emailed to you quite quickly and it has been a good service.

chriserenity

david29dpo wrote: »

"As said above, A hip is valid for 12 months but the searches it contains will be out of date after 5-6 months. Most buyers solicitors will insist these are renewed, updated after that time and this is where the problems could start. The seller is under no obligation to pay for new searches leaving a buyer with fairly useless hip".

The HIP is more than a fancy folder for the searches. In my opinion the most important document in the HIP is the Energy Performance Certificate - For a website dedicated to saving money I would have thought the merits of this document would already have been discussed at length but for some reason people are shying away from it - is there a reason for this? I have tried to explain this document on other threads but if you want me to I will do so again.

david29dpo wrote: »

As hips have only been going since august, it will be interesting to see what happens. The agents i deal with are trying to get the sellers to update the searches if their house takes this long to sell so the hip for-fills its job and the buyers are happy and a quick completion takes place.

Trouble is this update is usually not free. What I'm trying to get across is that there is more to moneysaving with HIPs than the price at the outset. Once you factor in the cost of the search renewal it can work out more expensive than a HIP which comes with free search renewal at six months.

david29dpo

I supply Hips to local agents. At the moment buyers arnt taking any notice of the EPC, whether they do in the future remains to be seen. Free updates depends on the suppler or the local council. Some councils now are doing half price updates but not round here yet!

Doozergirl

The EPC as part of a whole Home Condition Report I can understand, but I am sure buyers would rather know if the house was falling down or needed major expenditure before being told to put in some more loft insulation. In it's current format, it is pathetic.

I've just seen a HIP for a house that needs full modernisation. It's the only one I've seen yet where the potential was significantly far from the exisiting. The EPC might provide a clue in that case, if you hadn't viewed the house, that it was in a bad way but otherwise, the ones I have seen are mostly quite close together.

People choose houses with their hearts first, survey second. Survey should be in place, paid for by the vendor, so that a buyer can decide whether a house is a good investment before they spend money. That holds true value for both vendor and purchaser - no surprises for either and subsequently less sales collapsing.

chriserenity

Dear DG

When energy rating information was introduced for other things like light bulbs, fridges or whatever the information was always followed by strong consumer demand for A rated products and now we're used to buying A rated bulbs and wouldn't you wonder what was going on if a guy in a shop tried to sell you a C band washer!? I understand EPCs are new but I'm sure that given time the information will have the same effect. I guess we'll see as from January 1st the EPC graphs must appear in sales particulars so ... You may well say "well homes are different" - but are they? I'm sure people do buy with their heart rather than their head - as I say we'll see what happens

Yes, as you say there are a range of gaps between current and potential in terms of energy efficiency. The point is the information is now in a clear, easy to understand format produced for the consumption of the purchaser upfront. Thats got to be a good thing considering what is at stake. Without without the report you wouldn't know it was going to cost you a fortune to keep the house toasty warm all winter until you got your quarterly bill after you'd lived through it. Thats not even mentioning global warming?

We've seen a wide range of different results - I had one yesterday with a current efficiency score of 18 and a potential score of 76 - obviously alot of work needed to bring it up to scratch and may not appeal to someone not willing to put in the necessary work. Comparatively I had one last week with near identical current and potential scores like the ones you described.

More information is better than less I always say. Time will tell whether the HIP is accepted by the public I suppose, or more crucially whether it is accepted by the buyer's solicitors for whom it is primarily intended (apart from the EPC).