UK Home Information Packs scrapped!

The new UK coalition government has suspended the use of Home Information Packs (HIPs) by home sellers.

HIPs were introduced in 2007 in England and Wales with the stated objective of speeding up home sales and discouraging gazumping.  However, they were widely opposed by the industry because they added to sellers’ costs without any benefit to anybody.  Homes can now be marketed without sellers having to pay hundreds of pounds upfront for nothing.

All that will now be required is the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), which ranks the energy efficiency of a home with A to G ratings.  It must be produced by the seller within 28 days of putting a home on the market.  This must be retained because of European laws.

Tony Coe, Chief Executive of Saunders 1865, said, “HIPS were a pointless piece of red tape that add unnecessarily to the costs of all corporate clients who provide home sale assistance to their relocating Employees.  Their abolition will only benefit the home sale market.  Frankly, it is doubtful whether even EPCs produce any practical benefit, but this is a European legal  requirement so the UK government has no choice but to retain them.”