H.I.P. for selling home

PhillD_2

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, so apologies if this has been covered before. We are selling our house and we need to have a H.I.P. done. A company is offering to do it for about £320 and my question is, is there a cheaper way to do this?

Thanks in advance

jimc_2

If that's £320 inc VAT then it's about in the middle/bottom of what the government survey found. As far as 'cheaper' is concerned, checkout the posts from chriserenity advising what to make sure is included/excluded. Sure you can find it or even do-it-yourself cheaper but if you end up an unacceptable pack you will just get hit for other costs from elsewhere (eg solicitors).

It's more important to know what the pack contains (including 'extras' that some pack providers throw in) than how much it costs in absolute terms.

Also watch out for 'tie-ins'. Some Estate Agents offer HIPs with 'deferred' payments as a means of tying you in longer/tighter. Also it has been reported that some cheap HIPs come with a tie-in to expensive Conveyancing. Is your £320 HIP tied in to other services?

Richard_Webster

£320 is fairly reasonable. Check what local solcitors charge - you will need one to do the conveyancing - they might give slight discount on their fees if they do the HIP too!

jaffacat_2

what if you get a HIP and your property doesnt sell? How long are they valid for and what happens if you take your house off the market for a period of time (this is assuming you own the HIP not through the estate agent?

peter1910uk

As far as I am aware there isn't a "shelf life" for a HIP (I may well be wrong!). The detail in it shouldn't fundamentally change. We were advised that the HIP would be "revisiting" at least once a year.

gotskills

instead of going on i recomend visiting http://www.cheap-conveyancing-online.co.uk/quick_conveyancing_guides.asp for any information on hips, i found everything i needed there. hope this helps

mike_the_bike_2

Is it possible to do most of the HIP yourself? ..or gather the information and supply it to the inspector to reduce the cost??

Are the tories still saying they will abolish HIPS???

SquatNow

I beleive the "Fine" for selling without a HIP is only £200.

I've no idea why anyone bothers getting one... it's cheaper to just pay the fine.

jimc_2

SquatNow wrote: »

I beleive the "Fine" for selling without a HIP is only £200.

I've no idea why anyone bothers getting one... it's cheaper to just pay the fine.

Wrong unfortunately! The fine is 'per instance' which can be interpreted as the local Trading Standards Office decides fit. It could be every time they look in the agents window or see an advert. One poster on MSE said they'd seen a case of 'per day' as 'instances'. That's £1400 a week. Starts to get expensive.

BobProperty

jimc wrote: »

Wrong unfortunately! The fine is 'per instance' which can be interpreted as the local Trading Standards Office decides fit. It could be every time they look in the agents window or see an advert. One poster on MSE said they'd seen a case of 'per day' as 'instances'. That's £1400 a week. Starts to get expensive.

There's a bit of "wrong unfortunately" in your post. The interpretation of "per instance" isn't down to Trading Standards. The example you give is misleading. If the estate agent puts the advert in their window, that is one instance of advertising, not one instance every time a TSO walks past. I agree though it has been said that the fine is up to either £100 or £200 per day while the breach of the law occurs. However, it is argued that the law on this point is vague and hasn't been tested yet. Equally TSOs aren't interested in prosecuting for missing HIPs when there's a lot worse things about. Chriserenity (?) does EPCs and/or HIPs and usually posts on here, look for their posts and Richard Webster's.

jimc_2

BobProperty wrote: »

The example you give is misleading.

Not according to the Estate Agent Enforcement section at the OFT, it's not. I have been PMd by another MSE that TSOs had been briefed on exactly this point of 'increasing the instances'. I agree it's not been tested yet but it will be soon.

Regardless of our ongoing disagreement about this point and your insistence that TSOs don't care, an incitement to deliberately break the law (such as Squat Now) has no place in an advice thread where law-abiding persons might take this opinion as considered advice and lay themselves open to exactly this action when it does occur.

This isn't an HPC rant thread. People are looking for advice here and a call to break the law is NOT good advice.