HIP Replacement

From 6 April 2009, changes to the often criticised Home Information Pack came into effect. Sellers of leasehold property will not be obliged to provide any further information regarding their flat in addition
to the standard HIP other than a copy of the lease (the inclusion of which became mandatory in January 2009). Although mandatory answers to questions about the management of the property were mooted by the Government, this has now been indefinitely waived. Kate Nicholls of The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) said: “These changes mean that consumers can be more confident that ever that their HIP contains the fullest and most up-to-date information that is available. In this crucial time for the  property market, it is absolutely essential that transactions are both wholly transparent and that buyers and sellers have complete confidence in them.” By contrast, Gillian Charlesworth, RICS director of external aff airs said: “…trying to engineer the home buying and selling process through the HIP is of limited use. We believe that much more will be achieved by regulating the practitioners, rather than trying to control the process.”

Similarly, Peter Bolton-King of the National Association of Estate Agents called for HIPs to be scrapped during the recession, “Surely between them Alistair Darling and Margaret Beckett can see that HIPs should be suspended – not made compulsory.” A survey from the NAEA found 89 per cent of property professionals do not believe that the new requirements are beneficial to buyers. The Government’s own statistics, show that 77 per cent of house buyers paid no attention to HIPs when they decided whether or not to buy a property.