DIY HIP - worried about land search

FriendlyHIP

Hi All,

Just to let you know a few things. I am a HIP and EPC provider and have been in this since the beginning of HIPs (August 2007) and hope this is helpful:

If you physically go to the Local Authority to research your own searches, YOU will be responsible for any mistakes, so yes, you will need insurance. You will need to provide all the required documents and search information normally found in the LLC1 and CON29 forms and comply with the HIP Code (or you could get in trouble). This sort of knowledge should really involve training and this will cost far more than getting someone else to do it for you! :rolleyes:

If you source a Personal Search Provider to obtain your searches, THEY are responsible for any mistakes so make sure they have insurance! £2,000,000 should cover it :cool:

A HIP for a 2 bed flat should only cost you around £200 (if you can provide a copy of the lease yourself) or £230 if you need the HIP company to source it for you, and there are companies out there that are not VAT registered *cough cough* and therefore will not charge you VAT on top!

Anyway, hope that helps...busy busy

Good luck,

Emma Baker
DipDEA

baileysbattlebus

I used to work for Thames Water and they do drainage and water searches - all water companies do - they charge between £40 and £50 for Con29W (drainage and water search) Current TW charge is £42.77 inc vat.

con29 the local authority search
£119 at our local council - you can normally apply on line - the cost of this varies from £40 to £280 depending on your local authority - ring your council and speak to them.

llc1 is £6 at our local council

land registry title and plan £3 each - if you print them off in PDF format they are official copies.
"The official copy of the register is only available electronically as a pdf. As it contains a watermark to guarantee its authenticity, electronic manipulation would result in the document no longer being an official copy. However, printing and binding the pdf into a HIP pack would not affect its status as an official copy. These are Land Registry’s views, but any authoritative decision would have to be determined by a court."

EPC £50 to £100

have a look at the link - it tells you exactly what you need


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/BuyingAndSellingYourHome/Homeinformationpacks/DG_171808

FriendlyHIP

baileysbattlebus wrote: »

I used to work for Thames Water and they do drainage and water searches - all water companies do - they charge between £40 and £50 for Con29W (drainage and water search) Current TW charge is £42.77 inc vat.

con29 the local authority search
£119 at our local council - you can normally apply on line - the cost of this varies from £40 to £280 depending on your local authority - ring your council and speak to them.

llc1 is £6 at our local council

land registry title and plan £3 each - if you print them off in PDF format they are official copies.
"The official copy of the register is only available electronically as a pdf. As it contains a watermark to guarantee its authenticity, electronic manipulation would result in the document no longer being an official copy. However, printing and binding the pdf into a HIP pack would not affect its status as an official copy. These are Land Registry’s views, but any authoritative decision would have to be determined by a court."

EPC £50 to £100

have a look at the link - it tells you exactly what you need


http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/BuyingAndSellingYourHome/Homeinformationpacks/DG_171808

Exactly! And this comes to around £220 to £270 even though you've done most of the work yourself...better off paying someone else to do it by the sounds of it...

Richard_Webster

Also many solicitors may want to have a hard-bound copy which costs about £15

I am not one of them - the hard copy HIPs are a pain because we often have to scan them in to e-mail the relevant bits on to our clients with explanations. I far prefer to receive them as a PDF or from a webpage where we can download the bits we want.

andy_stenning

Personal Searches from Searches UK come with Errors and Emmissions Insurance which is what I think you are referring to. Errors and Emmissions insurance is paid for generally by the search company on a per search basis. If you would like to know more I can be contacted at [EMAIL="andrew@searchesuk.co.uk"]andrew@searchesuk.co.uk[/EMAIL]

chriserenity

andy_stenning wrote: »

Personal Searches from Searches UK come with Errors and Emmissions Insurance which is what I think you are referring to. Errors and Emmissions insurance is paid for generally by the search company on a per search basis. If you would like to know more I can be contacted at [EMAIL="andrew@searchesuk.co.uk"]andrew@searchesuk.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Emmissions insurance? What does that indemnify the recipient against - future climate change levies? :rotfl: Sorry, couldn't resist.
People considering using a personal search company must make sure the agent collects all pertinent information available to them. If you want to put a personal search in a HIP you can only do this if the search agent has only used omissions insurance to cover information not available to them.

This does not include instances where the search agent has not bothered to ask the council whats available to them or where the council wants to charge them an extra fee to access the information!

HIPs containing such searches are in breach of the HIP regulations and are non-compliant/of limited use to the conveyancer.

Simply using a search agent that is HIP Code or Search Code registered will not guarantee the above. If you don't understand the above don't compile your own HIP.

louloubelle79

Anyone else recently done their own Hipp-am lookinginto doing this myself.

Doozergirl

There is another thread more recent to this where someone did their own, but the price has come down quite a lot - I've bought my last one online from https://www.hips4u.com and it was £204. As you can see from above, when I did my own (with official searches admittedly, but who really cares) it cost £250.

I think I am about to do my own again but I think because I have to have the official searches carried out for myself again anyway so it's pointless paying twice.

G_M

Online HIP providers are really about as cheap as a DIY HIP now. Not really worth the effort.

By the way, a common mistake made by DIYers, is to download the Title and Plan documents from the Land Registry's online site. These are NOT HIP compliant. You have to provide OFFICIAL OFFICE COPIES from the Land Registry which are only available in hard paper format (unless you have an account with the LR in which case you are probobly a solicitor.....).

david29dpo

The information in a DIY HIP is more likely to be more accurate than a cheap HIP bought online. The most important documents (other than a personal search) are done by third parties anyway.