HIPs Rolled Out For All Properties

They’ve been much criticised, and hardly anyone seems to like them, but the government is continuing to roll-out Home Information Packs (HIPs). They will be required for all properties on sales as from 14 December.

First introduced on 1 August for properties with four or bedrooms, the HIP scheme extended to three bedroom properties on 10 September, and will soon encompass all residential properties.

Critics claim they made it more difficult to sell a property and increased the cost (the average cost is between £300 and £350), but the government say the packs bring benefits to buyers.

Housing minister Yvette Cooper claims that HIPs will help first-time buyers with important information for their prospective purchase. Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) give a home an energy rating of A to G (rather like the ratings given to household white goods). Homes with poor scores will receive assistance from the Green Homes Service just announced by the Prime Minister.

Miss Cooper said: “HIPs and EPCs are already helping consumers to save hundreds of pounds off their fuel bills and are cutting search costs too. All home buyers will be able to benefit from energy efficiency advice, with those receiving low green ratings of ‘F’ and ‘G’ especially targeted for support and grants.”

Packs include an EPC, copies of planning, listed building or building regulations consent, local searches, and guarantees for any work on the property.

A review of HIPs carried out by Europe Economics found no evidence of an impact on prices beyond the short-term, and said that any delay to the planned roll-out would cause “greater market difficulties and uncertainties”.

Yet in a housing market that is struggling of late it is hard to see how the implementation of HIPs across the board will have anything but an adverse effect, short or long term.

The extension of HIPs was criticised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) housing spokesman Jeremy Leaf who argued that widening the scheme will have a negative effect on those people trying to get onto the property ladder. “Rolling HIPs out to one and two-bed properties could find first-time buyers caught between a rock and a hard place as accessibility to the market would go off the scale,” he said. “If the Housing Minister genuinely wants to improve the plight of first-time buyers, she should not continue with this flawed policy,” he added.

However, in the light of a recent shortage of HIPs work, the extension was welcomed by the Association of Hip Providers (AHIPP)