home information packs
As you may have seen in the national press, the Government has introduced a new regime for the house selling process . The property market in England and Wales has changed for ever and the way in which properties are sold has been turned on its head.
HIPs are now a reality for all homes. Anyone wishing to sell their home must have available to any prospective buyer a Home Information Pack (“HIP”). Simply put, this is an indexed bundle of papers containing:
- A Sale Statement (a summary of the contract by which the property will be sold);
- A Home Contents Form (setting out what is to be left at the property);
- A Home Use Form (detailing information about the property generally);
- Copies of the Legal Title (including any applicable Lease);
- Local Authority and Water Searches;
- but not the Home Condition Report (see the note on the latest position below).
There are other contents to the HIP which are not mandatory but are "authorised" and can thus be included.
The stated aim of introducing HIPs is to speed up the conveyancing process. To achieve this, it is essential that the HIP should be as comprehensive as possible – only then will it have any real meaning to a prospective buyer’s solicitor and thus actually contribute to the swift conclusion of the sale.
what does HIPs mean for you?
You must have commissioned a HIP to enable your property to be marketed. It must therefore be obtained before you can sell your home.
For the first time, a Seller will have an "up-front" cost when placing their home on the market. The estimated cost is anywhere from £299 plus vat up to possibly £1,500 and more for a larger property.
The Home Condition Report is a type of survey which will reveal the state and condition of your home "warts and all" to buyers before they make an offer on your home. However this is not mandatory.
Obviously the big chains of national estate agencies offer to supply HIPs to selling clients “in-house.” They also do so on a deferred payment basis so that the seller does not have to pay for the HIP until they pay the rest of the estate agent’s normal commission for the sale. Sellers should be wary however as such schemes will carry with them the obligation to use that agent’s favoured conveyancer. In the case of high street chains, this will usually mean your house will be sold through a lawyer based many miles away and with whom you will have severe difficulties communicating. You may feel that this is not too bad on a simple sale but you will also be expected to use that same lawyer for your related purchase – a transaction of much greater on-going importance to you. The likelihood also is that HIPs supplied by the national chains will be designed to simply comply with legislation and will not, in reality, add anything to the selling process in terms of speed as they will still leave the buyer’s solicitors having to obtain much more information during the legal stages - all they are really going to do is cost you, the seller, more money!
what are cleggs doing about this new regime?
We are one of only a very few solicitors practices geared up to providing HIPs. We have committed significant investment to ensure that we are in the forefront of the east midlands property environment so that our clients will continue to receive the best possible service in the emerging market.
We’ve talked to most local independent estate agents, the sort of agent that you really want to sell your house. They all have extensive local knowledge and offer a quality, personal service to their clients. By definition we deal with the agents whose client base reflects our own - the more discerning seller who appreciates the key elements of professionalism, independence and quality.
Working with those agents, we offer a complete HIPs service based on a menu ordering system. To you the selling client, this means:
- you can obtain a bespoke HIP from us as soon as you intend to market your home, ordered either from us direct or via the estate agent
- because that HIP is prepared by local lawyers, it will contain all of the information your buyer’s solicitor will need to move to exchange quickly
- the HIP will be with your agent as soon as possible after ordering so that your home can be on the market with minimum delay
- HIPs will be supplied electronically, via CD-ROM or in paper format
- if you wish you can obtain the Home Condition Report from a surveyor (who must be a qualified Home Inspector) of your choice (obviously it can also be obtained through us if preferred)
- we can offer deferred payment schemes which will be competitive with national chains
- you can use a local lawyer offering a trusted service
HIPS - The latest
The current position on HIPs is that the regime has been fully rolled out and applies to all houses as from 14 December 2007; however the pack will not have to include a Home Condition Report (HCR). The HCR can be supplied on a voluntary basis and, according to the government will, in the fullness of time, either become compulsory resultant upon further regulation, or simply become standard on a market-driven basis.
The introduction of Home Information Packs for smaller properties will be phased in on a yet to be announced time-frame.
For the present however, the remaining elements of the HIP will be supplemented by an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which will rate the property in terms of energy efficiency. You can read the latest government press release here.
new information technology at cleggs
To deal with the introduction of HIPs (and e-conveyancing, the new, all electronic, paperless property transfer procedure due to be with us in 2008), we are further enhancing our already cutting edge IT systems. This will bring a range of benefits to our clients including:
- On-line appointment - you can instruct us entirely on the web
- The ability to track the progress of your sale/purchase on-line with the information up-dated hourly
- Text messages to give you key information
We know from experience however that technology is nothing without the sort of personal and approachable service offered to our clients by Cleggs today. That very definitely won’t change!
If you want to know more about HIPs or any other aspect of our property services, contact Mark Williams.