Government confirms April changes to Hips will take place Article By Stephen Crompton Russell & Russell
25th February 2009
The Government has issued an official response to the anti-Home Information Pack Petition lodged by Estate Agent Trevor Kent.
The petition had asked for the current transitional first day marketing provisions to be allowed to continue, for the sake of the housing market permitting properties to be marketed immediately a Hip has been commissioned without waiting for the contents, and in particular the EPC, to be compiled.
In its response, however, the Government has confirmed that from April 6, it will be an offence to start marketing a property without the bulk of a HIP in place. The response insists that the delay should be in the region of three to five days and says that HIPs are not hurting the housing market.
The statement says: "A basic HIP must be available before marketing of a property can begin. This will provide industry with certainty about the operation of HIPs and ensure that consumers can see and use the HIP to inform their decisions about a property. These changes will also make it easier for local trading standards agencies to identify specific cases of non-compliance and enforce the HIP duties.
"There is no evidence to support the assertion that removal of the temporary first day marketing concession will have a negative impact on the housing market. Industry feedback reports that the 'basic HIP' is now available on average within 3-5 days so sellers should not experience undue delay in putting their property on the market. In addition sellers will continue to have a further 28 day grace period to include documents that may take longer to obtain, for example local property searches.
"Furthermore, independent research carried out by Europe Economics and published in November 2007 concluded HIPs had no impact on the number of transactions or prices."
Russell & Russell can arrange packs through its associated hips business, the Hips Centre, which has a proven track record for providing competitively priced HIPs with efficiency and without delays. It has a panel of local DEAs who have agreed to provide EPCs at short notice where access to a property is immediately available.