HIPs' removal will free up market activity
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In an overdue flash of common sense the new government has announced the abolition of Home Information Packs with immediate effect, pending formal legislation to abolish the packs permanently.
The government’s fear is that the requirement for sellers to have a HIP is stifling growth in a fragile housing market and adds nothing to the process - something that many of us have been saying for some time.
There will still be a requirement for an Energy Performance Certificate which I don’t think anyone would object to as this can be useful in assessing the energy efficiency of a property.
Originally designed to help speed up the house-buying process, HIPs quickly became an albatross around the neck of the previous government. It stubbornly refused to get rid of the packs even though they had become more and more diluted, with the exclusion of the Home Condition Report, in the run-up to their introduction.
With many estate agents citing HIPs as the reason for the overnight collapse of the speculative seller market, their removal should help free up more movement in the property market and remove one of the barriers.
HIPs were never embraced by the public despite the valiant attempts by most estate agents to build this irrelevant requirement into the sales process and give it an element of credibility.
The coalition government has taken the decision that the previous administration should have taken and shot the badly lame horse.
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Readers' comments (1)
Roger Lawrie | 2 Jun 2010 4:21 pm
With HIPS gone and still a requirement for EPC's, many landlords will be unaware of regulations for Air conditioning Inspections.
Midlands company, Envitae, specialists in commercial property energy compliance, is one of many organisations supporting CIBSE in their “Non Compliance Costs Campaign”, as there is compelling case supporting the need for Air conditioning Inspection. Energy Performance Air conditioning Inspections are enabling significant energy savings to be made.
Envitae’s new website www.envitae.co.uk provides lots of useful information and guidance on the requirement for independent energy assessment and points out that inspection is the responsibility of the system operator, who is often the tenant.
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