HIPS questions?

wimbleQ

Hi

Hope some of you intelligent folk here can help my confusion over HIPS.

Am hoping to sell privately and I know I need a HIPS.

I've read on this site and on others that the really cheap providers do "personal" searches not the proper ones and then your buyer's solicitors won't accept them.

But my borough charges £200 just for the local srch on its own so it will cost me a lot if I get proper searches done, almost £400, versus between £250 and £325 (which is bad enough!!) to get a cheap HIP done with "personal" searches.

Can anyone tell me what happens if I go down the cheap route? Surely if your Buyer's solicitors won't accept the searches they just have to carry out their own - or can I be obliged to provide "proper" searches?

I suppose I cant understand how there are so many of the cheap companies out there is the stuff they provide is no good - can any one throw any light?

Ta muchly.

Jorgan_2

It isn't a case of the buyers solicitor not accepting the searches, its the buyers mortgage lender. There are only a few lenders that won't accept personal searches, the biggest is HSBC.

If you have gone down the personal search route, you have complied with the regulations regarding HIPs, so if the buyer can't use the information in the HIP, there shouldn't be any expectation on you to pay for anything else.

liitleblackcat

I have been responsible for a local authority searches section in the past and personal searches were the bane of our life. All they can do is to check publicly available registers of information and can give no information that what you can't find out for yourself.

I had one poor couple who paid for a search through their solicitor but he organised the search through a personal search company and pocketed the difference. After they had bought the house, they found out that there was going to be a new road build about 50 metres away and complained that it wasn't shown on their search. It turned out that the personal search company had not checked the information properly and they were lumbered. I don't know if they sued their solicitor but I felt very sorry for them.

country_sport

As said, if you have a cheap hip with personal searches you have done what the law requires. However your buyer may not be very pleased when their solicitor bins it. This may Pi** your buyer off a little. So a penny saved? Is it worth it? The HIPs I do for local solicitors and agents contain only official searches, indeed they insist on it.

lotto-dreamer

Well, I have just had the Energy Assement official around this evening as part of my HIPS.

The price I have paid for my HIPS (the company was recommended by estate agent) was £299 plus VAT.

The Searches (local and drainage) are usually only valid for three months but apparently you don't have to supply additional searches if your HIPS expire before you sell. The onus is then on the purchaser's solicitors to do any further searches. So the point of this is........

From my own knowledge - the real cost of the HIPS pack consists of - £6 for Land Registry Official copies, £100 (approx) for local search and £40 (approx) for water and drainage search. What is left over is for the energy assessment etc and for preparing the pack. Nice work if you can get it!

Also having a HIPS is no quicker than the old method - other searches still have to be done (not obligatory in the HIPS) i.e. planning permissions, building consents, copies of old documents /conveyances etc - all of which are usually requested by Buyer's solicitors and need to be obtained from Local Authority and Land Registry (at a price).


Mr Energy assessor wanted to photograph things inside my house but I said "no". He accepted this but insisted on photographing outside. According to him the inside photos were supposedly to check up on him that he had done his job correctly but the photos do apparently go into a central database :rolleyes:

He confirmed my suspicions (which he admitted rather sheepishly) that the Energy Assessment is the government looking for ways to increase council tax in future :mad: (discovered on his training course).

I also queried the energy saving light bulbs and mercury issue and he could give no valid answer (I raised the land contamination problems from mercury aspect)

He also advised that from June all rental properties will have to have a HIPS - and from October all new build properties and commercial properties will have to have a HIPS.

lotto-dreamer

I've read on this site and on others that the really cheap providers do "personal" searches not the proper ones and then your buyer's solicitors won't accept them.

'Personal' searches usually refer to searches done by someone going to the Local Authority as opposed to commissioning the Local Authority to do the searches.

Various search companies will do "personal searches" as well as "direct searches" with local authority. The companies are however covered by insurance if they do "personal" searches. There can be a difference in information. The ones done by the local authority are generally more comprehensive.

The criteria of which type of searches are acceptable can depend on the buyer's mortgagee. Different lenders have different criteria (you can check on CML Lender's Handbook -http://www.cml.org.uk/handbook/frontpage.aspx

(to check this do Ctrl F and then type in "personal searches" - it should take you directly to the correct paragraph)

Jorgan_2

[quote=lotto-dreamer;10364745

From my own knowledge - the real cost of the HIPS pack consists of - £6 for Land Registry Official copies, £100 (approx) for local search and £40 (approx) for water and drainage search. What is left over is for the energy assessment etc and for preparing the pack. Nice work if you can get it!

Also having a HIPS is no quicker than the old method - other searches still have to be done (not obligatory in the HIPS) i.e. planning permissions, building consents, copies of old documents /conveyances etc - all of which are usually requested by Buyer's solicitors and need to be obtained from Local Authority and Land Registry (at a price).


Mr Energy assessor wanted to photograph things inside my house but I said "no". He accepted this but insisted on photographing outside. According to him the inside photos were supposedly to check up on him that he had done his job correctly but the photos do apparently go into a central database :rolleyes:

He confirmed my suspicions (which he admitted rather sheepishly) that the Energy Assessment is the government looking for ways to increase council tax in future :mad: (discovered on his training course).

I also queried the energy saving light bulbs and mercury issue and he could give no valid answer (I raised the land contamination problems from mercury aspect)

He also advised that from June all rental properties will have to have a HIPS - and from October all new build properties and commercial properties will have to have a HIPS.[/quote]

New build regs changed at the start of this month and rental properties will need Energy Performance Certificates from October. From June 1st the HIP will need to be complete before marketing can commence, not commissioned as it is at the moment.

chickmug

lotto-dreamer wrote: »

and from October all new build properties and commercial properties will have to have a HIPS.

On commercial EPC's yes but not the HIPs - you are misinformed.

nelly_2

Hips are about as usefull as an ash tray on a motor bike!

Richard_Webster

t isn't a case of the buyers solicitor not accepting the searches, its the buyers mortgage lender. There are only a few lenders that won't accept personal searches, the biggest is HSBC.

If you have gone down the personal search route, you have complied with the regulations regarding HIPs, so if the buyer can't use the information in the HIP, there shouldn't be any expectation on you to pay for anything else.(Jorgan)

I agree. I have provided several HIPs now with personal searches and have just had the first solicitor saying he would not accept it, he was doing his own. He did not complain further or want the costs paid for by the seller or anything like that so I can't see the problem in practice.

Equally I have now been presented with a HIP with a personal search, but because my client getting his mortgage from HSBC we have to do the official search with the Council - I warn buyer clients of the likelihood of this if they tell me they are getting their mortgage from HSBC/FirstDirect.

There is a very real marketing problem that anyone providing HIPs has. The potential client wants to know what it is going to cost. If the figure quoted is £X plus somewhere between £70 and £220 for the local search then it is too complicated for a lot of people to understand - they want to know the bottom line - and the detailed reasons why an official local search may be better than a personal one will get lost on most people. If there was well known public resistance to non-official searches then we could change our practices, but as the HIP is rightly or wrongly seen as a necessary evil, sellers are more concerned about price than about quality because in practice they don't get any backlash coming their way.

wimbleQ

Hi everyone,

Thankx for the helpful replies which give me a better understanding.

As has been said for a seller it comes down to getting the lowest price then as if what a seller provides isn't up to scratch, so long as it ticks the boxes required by the regulations then they have complied. This just means the buyer has to duplicate the searches but do proper ones, so doubling the cost and not saving any time at all. What madness and waste! Still I guess the HIPs and EPC people are earning well from it.

Now I understand better (I think!) what's involved I'm sorry to say I'll probably go down the selfish route of looking for the cheapest option for me! It's a freehold so I feel confident enough I can fill out the report itself and know how to ask the Land Reg for their bits.

I've found someone who will do the EPC for £60.

So my question is, is there a company anyone can recommend that JUST does a personal local authority and drainage search (without the rest of the HIPs bumph), some sort of personal search company?

That way I think I might save around £100 or so - every little helps!

Ta muchly.