Can Home Information Packs ever do their job?
What takes over a decade in the planning, receives near universal condemnation from the industry it is intended to help, and has more launches than the Apollo Space Program?
New Labour's much-maligned election manifesto solution to the not-broken-but-lets-fix-it-anyway homebuying process. Hip hip hooray for the Home Information Pack (HIP), designed to stop purchases falling through mid-process and speed up the transaction by supposedly providing the buyer with all the information they need about a property. The cost of obtaining this information is effectively shifted over to the seller.
HIPs were finally launched on 1 August last year. Well, it was for four-bed properties and above, anyway. Then on 10 September for three-beds and 14 December for one and two-beds.
Loopholes
• Anyone whose property was on the market before the relevant launch date doesn't need one. Partially-constructed properties fall outside the rules too, as do sales to family members.
• Until after 1 June 2008, those selling a leasehold property do not need to provide all the information about the lease that should really be provided in the HIP.
• Anyone who has paid for a HIP (or agreed a payment plan) is allowed to market their property without waiting for the pack to be assembled. This expires on 1 June, after which sellers will actually have to provide potential buyers with the HIP from day one. All making sense?
• In the meantime, if the property sells quickly the seller need never provide the HIP, although they will need to give their buyer the all-important Energy Performance Certificate (like your fridge rating but for your house), required by European legislation and the real reason that the packs saw the light of day despite fierce opposition.
DDD-day
Drop dead date (I'm not joking) is the date by which any of us selling a property, regardless of when we put it on the market, need to have a HIP ready for potential buyers before we market our properties. After this date HIPs have to contain all the required information -- no exceptions. Unfortunately, the Government has not yet specified when the drop dead date will be.
Yet calls are already being heard for progress to be made on getting the packs 'exchange-ready', meaning the HIP would contain such comprehensive information that offers could be accepted and contracts exchanged immediately. Now that would speed up the homebuying process!
Ready, steady, no!
However, vital missing components make exchange-ready HIPs impossible.
Firstly, the Home Condition Report (HCR) was the jewel in the HIP crown but was made voluntary at the 11th hour in an extraordinary Government u-turn that many claim has rendered the packs useless.
The HCR offers the buyer valuable guidance as to the condition of the property, similar to a Homebuyer's Report. As a voluntary part of the pack that doubles the cost from £250 to almost £500, it's only taken up by a tiny proportion of sellers.
The Government has said that if voluntary take-up of the all-important HCR is unsuccessful (which it almost certainly will be), making them compulsory is on the table. Good, because at present buyers wanting peace of mind have to pay for a Homebuyer's Report (£450) in order to know exactly what they are buying.
In addition to the HCR, the packs are still missing a number of documents that would have to be made compulsory before a pack could be exchange-ready, such as environmental information, a draft contract, and other bits and bobs currently assembled by the purchasing conveyancer. As they are voluntary, they are seldom included in HIPs.
So how about running before we can walk? Until the drop dead date is reached (whenever that may be) and we can all get used to HIPs in their watered down state, it's pie in the sky to get excited about a day when they will include all the elements they were designed to have, and therefore do what they were designed to do. I won't be holding my breath.
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