HIPs: Home Information Packs

AES Southern DO NOT provide this service, but there are many companies on the net who do.

Home Information Packs were introduced by the Government to improve home buying and selling for the consumer, and as part of wider action to cut carbon emissions from homes. A Home Information Pack comprises a set of documents which provide important information about a property, including legal title, its energy efficiency, and planning permissions.  This enables buyers to make faster and better informed decisions about the properties they are considering, and to make an offer on a property with confidence.  The Home Information Pack is also mandatory when letting a property.

Since 14 December 2007 it became mandatory for the seller to have commissioned a Home Information Pack before putting a property on the market to sell, lease, or rent.

HIPs attract a higher cost for the initial Search, so a single property can be provided with a HIP at an agreed rate.  On a development, however, the Search can be used to cover several properties, so the more properties there are, the cheaper the provision of the HIP becomes, per unit. However, it is important to bear in mind that some crucial elements of the HIP are only valid for three months, so HIPs should only be ordered for those properties that are to be marketed and, hopefully, sold within the time limit.

The Home Information Pack is a Government initiative to speed up the property buying / selling process. Currently it takes around 81 days on average from the acceptance of an offer to the contacts being exchanged. The government feels this is because things like searches are done post offer. The pack was originally designed to contain all the information that you would get post offer and would be provided by the seller so that any potential buyer had this information upfront, thereby avoiding delays and reducing the chance of the deal falling through.

Although this makes sense some of the major documents such as the survey are now longer compulsory meaning the HIP is now watered down and more of a delivery mechanism for the EPC than a useful tool to the property market. The Statutory Instrument no. 992 2007 from DCLG (The Home Information Pack Regulations 2007) currently state that a HIP must be ordered if you want to commence the marketing of the property. Since June 1st 2008 a HIP must be in place before you can market the property. Once a HIP is in place for a property it has unlimited shelf life providing the property remains on the market. If the property is taken off the market it has 12 months from the first day of marketing in which it could be put back on the market using the same HIP.

When the HIP is compiled the documents that go in it must be less than 3 months old apart from the EPC which can be 12 months old. Any new HIPs for a site would need the documents refreshing if the HIP was ordered more than 3 months after the first HIP was produced. Any HIPs within the 3 months can contain the documents produced for the first HIP.

The HIP contains
Home Information Pack Index
Energy Performance Certificate
Sale statement
Standard searches Standard searches consist of a local authority search and a drainage search, which would be generic to a site for new build HIPs.
Evidence of title
Additional information for leasehold and commonhold sales, where appropriate.

Information on each of these may be obtained from the government website