The Coalition Government has announced that homeowners wishing to sell their property no longer need a Home Information Pack (HIP).
Housing minister Grant Shapps is quoted: “Today the new Government is ensuring that home information packs are history. By suspending home information packs today, it means that home sellers will be able to get on with marketing their home without having to shell out hundreds of pounds upfront.”
Energy performance certificates, which show how energy efficient a property is, are still required prior to marketing a property.
HIPs were first introduced in August 2007 for properties with four or more bedrooms in England and Wales, before being gradually rolled out across the whole of the market. They aimed to reduce the amount of time it took to buy and sell a home by providing buyers with more of the information they needed up front, such as local authority searches.
Unfortunately this did not prove to be the case in many transactions where HIPs were either incomplete or the information contained in the HIP was out of date resulting in additional costs to buyers who were having to renew the Local Search.
We are happy to answer any questions you have about HIPs and how you should proceed with selling your house, at no cost or obligation. Please contact us on 01202 499255, hello@frettens.co.uk or post a question here.
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