The End of HIPs

It was announced today by the new Housing Minister Grant Shapps that Home Information Packs (HIPs) are to be suspended with immediate effect for anyone selling their home from 21 May 2010. There has been alot of speculation as to whether they would continue and so this should not come as any great shock.

HIPs were first introduced in 2007 through the Home Information Pack (HIP) Legislation with the aim of speeding up the house selling process by requiring sellers to provide upfront much of the obligatory conveyancing information when properties are first put up for sale. HIPs are paid for by the sellers and contain title deeds and local searches. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) were also required as part of the HIP legislation. EPCs rank the energy efficiency of a property using A-G ratings.

It is important to note that despite the announcement by the Government to suspend/scrap HIPs EPC certificates  will remain a legal requirement for  new builds and anyone selling or renting their property! They are a separate EU legal requirement under the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

Since their introduction HIPs have proved to be unpopular among many, particularly sellers and Estate Agents. Sellers have felt that they are an unnecessary burden and cost and those working in the housing industry have felt that they have been stunting the housing market recovery!

The burden of paying for local searches will now fall on the house buyers!

The dramatic reduction in HIP requirements could sadly result in large number of redundancies or self employed home inspectors out of work!

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers  (AHIPP), who are considering their options in light of the decision, are looking to work with the Government and are proposing an alternative legal/exchange ready pack to be instucted at the start of the sales process. They argue that it would be silly to throw away all the good things that have been learnt from HIPs.

Many HIP Providers who have seen this coming have already started to rebrand the services that they offer! We will wait to see what comes from all this!

Tristan Owen
Altrist
DEA in London

Tristan Owen
Altrist Ltd
tristan@altrist.co.uk

T: 0808 108 8012
M: 07837124584


Comments

FIXED EPC PRICES NEEDED NOW!!

Submitted by Yorvik Rental H... on Tue, 08/06/2010 - 14:04.

The End of HIPs has both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE factors for DEAs - have you noticed the increase though small Independant Energy Performance Certificate work as more and more House Owners, Panels and Estate Agents are moving the work back to the Legal Side of the business !! Yes US - Qualified, Accredited, Domestic Energy Assessors!!

Too many Rogues rang me up to arrange an EPC and when I questioned the owner, it was part of a HIP for someone never Qualified, or Legal to produce one? We the DEAs were the LEGAL SIDE and they By-PASSED the LAW and made HEFTY PROFITS, whilst we gained a small fee!! There was also a Deliberate Undercutting process to get rid of the small HIP Provider, mostly DEAs who have been bankrupted by these B******S.

Goodbye to Rogues is the Positive Gain for DEAs and more profit is slowly coming back from the Panels & customers, due to our Good Name coming back into the business factor. We suffered in the public eyes the shame of the Rogue Traders who we often unknowing served! They GAVE US A BAD NAME! We lost MONEY!!!

A Legal Government Home Office type Controlled Bureau should be started where all DEAs gain full pay and employment rights as Government Servants and with increased legal status would come both recognition of the importance of the work of DEAs and decrease risk factors of low work, low fees and bankrupcy!

Negative factors of the demise of HIPs is less products and services to offer on our websites and the few services of Energy Performance Certificates as our Main source of income and low profit levels, unless we make a decision now for EVERY MEMBER to AGREE A FIXED PRICE and KEEP TO IT! JOIN DEA LOCAL as MEN, not FAILURES!!

Instead of working miles from home for one job a day, we would gain the envy of everyone by gaining the pay of TRUE PROFESSIONALS - not the PEANUTS of SERVANTS, but the REWARDS of QUALIFIED BUSINESMEN.

Stop swabbling between us and JOIN MANUEL who could LEAD a National Group towards a BETTER DEALOCAL

You know it makes sense.....Why FAIL when YOU CAN WIN NOW!!!

Noel.