Aimed at making the current house buying process simpler and swifter the pack will have to include a draft survey, local authority searches, legal documents such as deeds and an Energy Performance Certificate.
The government back-tracked on making a Home Condition Report a compulsory element and is currently spending é4m to trial the packs in six areas of the country.
But across Greater Manchester 23 independent agents have teamed up with experienced HIP provider OpenBook to provide full Packs for their customers - including the home condition report.
Unlike the National Association of Estate Agents and many of the large chains they all believe that having information up-front will make buying and selling much smoother and see the logic of a survey going with the house and not the potential buyer.
So what happens when an inspector comes to call? Jill Burdett finds out. Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
That does seem logical, spend 250.000 pounds on some other persons say so, riiiight.
Its just another con trick thought up by the government to relieve you of more money.
This will really help to keep house prices down....doh
you will be aware of the "training" converting school teachers, decorators, typists etc to "surveyors" for approx ¿¿6,000.00; if a purchaser relies upon the HIP and it is wrong or has been negligently prepared then it is logical to sue for damages; such "surveyors" will thus need insurance (or risk being bankrupted).
The Negligent HIP Compensation Scheme has been created specially to support house purchasers often on a contingent fee basis.
It is expected that each year there will several thousand Actions - the only way for these HIP people to avoid potential liability is to either be very skilled and experienced surveyors (plainly not the case generally) or to state that no liability can arise from the Packs . . but that would mean that the packs were a complete waste of time and should thus not be mandatory - and the government will not reverse its stance.
I am a first time buyer trying to purchase a property at the moment. I had found a house, got my mortgage in place and had the survey done only to be told that the sellers were pulling out. I've now been left about ¿¿500 out of pocket and really annoyed with nowhere to live before Christmas. If anything, this HIPS would ensure that any seller was truly serious about selling their house and not just putting it on the market to see how much they could get.
in british columbis, the seller has to make a declaration of any known defects in the house. maybe the roof leaks, the wiring is old, basic stuff, but potentially costly. AND once the offer is made and accepted it is legally binding, no backing out on either side.
I think Nimby of salford has missed the point here - why has s/he trotted out the old cliqued line of "just other con trick by the government to get more money" - thats a bit of a stupid thing to say and I fail to see where the government are going to make money out of this!!! As one of the posters already, they lost money have a survey done and then the deal was pulled. In theory HIPs are a great idea, instead on every person that looks at a house getting their own survey done the house owner themselves gets one done and makes that available to all interested parties.
The only problem I can see is that how long does in take before the information in the info pack becomes obsolete - if a house doesnt sell for say 5 or 6 months in the HIP still valid??
The way the Govt. will make money on the hips is because they will be charging 17.5%vat on each pack, it dosen't take much to see why they want to still bring it in. The packs are just another ill conceived idea of this govt. they have not asked the people who work in the conveyencing process to tell them how it will work. It will not stop buyers pulling out and will clog up the whole processof selling and buying, be under no illusions it will not benefit the consumer and could lead to a recession affecting all trades and retailers.
I worry how this will affect the older person who needs to sell to release money from their home, they will be on a low income and probably cannot afford the costs involved in getting this information together, and also their will be a large number of jump on the bandwaggon companies offering their services who is going to regulate all this?