I thought you may be interested to read these reports - I will publish them, as & when they become available - Estate Agents across the Isle of Wight are very concerned.
Simon
PRESS RELEASE FROM SPLINTA
9th May 2006
PUBLIC GIVES THUMBS DOWN TO HOME INFORMATION PACKS
Public awareness of the government's planned imposition of mandatory Home Information Packs in June 2007 is rising, and with it, mounting levels of anger and dissent.
Home Information Packs are seen as offering little or no benefit to the home buying process. The content will not be trusted; the government are accused of creating another Stealth Tax and more bureaucracy; older people see the pack as a burden.
Having led property industry criticism of HIPs for five years the SPLINTA (Sellers' Pack Law is Not the Answer) campaign is now receiving rapidly increasing numbers of letters and emails from members of the public. Campaign leader, Nick Salmon says: "Ordinary people are starting to look at the Pack and the message is clear - the public do not want HIPs. The politicians may ignore the constructive criticisms of the property industry but they will find it harder to ignore the voice of the voters. HIPs started out as 'Prescott's Penalty' on the property market and now, with a new Secretary of State in charge, they will be 'Kelly's Calamity'."
Details of the campaign can be found on the website: www.splintacampaign.co.uk
A selection of written statements made to SPLINTA by members of the public in recent days:
NOT TRUSTING THE PACK
"Buyers and lenders are still going to feel they need to carry out their own surveys in order to have peace of mind."
"Nobody in their right mind as a purchaser would take the pack on face value, but would incur their own time and expense in checking out the facts, the local planning department and more importantly in having their own survey."
"I cannot see that an out of date survey, undertaken just for the purposes of a HIP and needing to be constantly renewed can be of benefit to any potential buyers and will cause great expense (and irritation) to the seller."
"This is a poorly thought out scheme. Why would any sensible buyer trust information provided by the seller? There are a lot of dishonest people out there. I would still carry out all my own searches and surveys when buying a house after this system was introduced. A HIP is not worth the paper it is written on."
"Neither lenders nor property purchasers will trust a report such as this and as it will only have a short shelf-life anyway it will actually hold up the property purchasing system - defeating the actual original purpose of this information pack."
STEALTH TAX
"I think this is just another way for the government to make money out of us."
"Not only are the HIP packs unnecessary and unfair but we now understand that VAT is to be charged on every pack prepared - how many people are aware of this? ... Another tax on the householder ... stamp duty; council tax ... where will it end?"
"I strongly object to the new buyers pack HIP and see it as another back-door tax."
"HIP's would not bring about any improvement in the system; would simply cost sellers more and line the pocket of the Treasury - the only beneficiary of the plan."
"I do not believe this will be of any help to either sellers or buyers. It is just another ploy by the fat cats and government to fleece us."
"Hips is a ludicrous idea, just another stealth tax."
"This is just another means of the government being able to control and spy on us as well as another means of tax. DIABOLICAL!"
"I would like to lend my support to the stop this government money-grabbing idea, presented under the guise of protecting buyers."
"Don't agree with it. It is another way of the government snooping and taxing us yet again."
"More of the Labour 'nanny state' and a licence to print money for supporters of this service. More intrusion into our homes by more 'inspectors'. Hips will be inflationary and whatever happened to 'caveat emptor' ?"
"I do not believe this is the way forward. There will be no ultimate gain or purpose for vendors or purchasers. It will only add additional expense. Another stealth tax from this government."
PENSIONERS
"Please, please, stop this nonsense - don't you think some of us pensioner home owners are being punished enough without having to worry about this now!"
"I am a retired person and at the moment am trying to sell my property and feel that the cost of the package will mean that I couldn't afford to keep it updated."
"Now looking to move on to retire in Somerset but due to health problems I cannot consider moving for at least a year. It will be a double blow if I have to provide this sellers pack too."
ENDS
Further information: Nick Salmon 07831 805455
Note to Editors:
The SPLINTA campaign is supported by over 1,400 firms of estate agents, surveyors and solicitor/conveyancers with over 2,750 offices in England and Wales and has called on Housing Minister, Yvette Cooper to shelve the HIP scheme. The group welcomes cost-effectively beneficial improvement to the home buying and selling process but opposes HIPs on the grounds that it that will not provide such cost-effective improvements.
SPLINTA CAMPAIGN
c/o Lurot Brand Ltd
37-41 Sussex Place
London
W2 2TH.
www.splintacampaign.co.uk
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9th May 2006
Dear Supporters
1. We have had many firms joining in recent days and as this is the first Update for some, here is a brief synopsis of what new (and existing!) supporters should be doing to help the campaign. This is your campaign and it can only succeed if everyone makes the necessary effort.
a) Make other firms aware of the campaign - this boosts supporter numbers.
b) Make the public aware of HIPs and SPLINTA by circulating the Kirstie Allsopp/Phil Spencer letter to all clients - if you have not got a copy, email me and I will send it. The public are beginning to respond to us - see the press release below.
c) Send me a note of the email addresses for any media and press contacts you may have, particularly local press. You can also forward to them the press releases the campaign puts out.
d) Write to your local MP alerting them to HIPs and expressing your opposition.
I should also like to remind and apologise to everyone that with some 200 emails a day coming in I am often hard-pressed to give an individual response to each. Please be assured that if you send me information or advice it is always read and acted upon wherever possible.
2. Last Friday the NAEA Congress panel discussion, in which I took part, went extremely well from our point of view, with searching questions from the floor about HIP provision. It is clear that the companies providing packs do not have anything like all the answers and Mike Ockenden of AHIPP was reluctantly forced into admitting that to date there are just 130 qualified Home Inspectors. I still do not believe 7,000 is achievable within the next year, especially as I hear on the grapevine that there is a 30% dropout among candidates for HI training...
3. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, post-reshuffle, is now renamed 'Department for Communities and Local Government.', abbreviated to DCLG. The new Secretary of State is Ruth Kelly. Yvette Cooper remains as Housing Minister. One wonders how much it costs the taxpayer in new stationery and signage, this being the third name change in recent years: DETR, DTLR, ODPM, DCLG...
4. A number of supporters have been approached to take part in the 'Baseline Study' of residential sales for DCLG and will be copying SPLINTA in on their results. As to the 'Dry Run' there is still no news of anything official. Only that AHIPP will be conducting their own dry run in as yet unannounced cities in coming months. Questions remain about the validity of a commercial organisation running such a trial - and with so few Home Inspectors qualified how will they test the Home Condition Report properly? It's a farce in the making and we shall be drawing attention to it as time goes on. If anyone is approached to take part in the AHIPP - or an eventual DCLG dry run, please let me know.
5. I am compiling a list of the current or immediate past occupations of trainee Home Inspectors - specifically those without any connection to surveying or property construction. If anyone can offer evidence on this topic I would be grateful to hear from them.
6. Ian Liddell-Grainger's Bill to abolish HIPs is set down for Second Reading on May 12th. It is highly unlikely to be heard and will therefore be re-scheduled for Reading on a later date. There is nothing unusual in this and it will continue to be a point of focus for MP's. I am aware from a number of sources that the renewal of the political debate on HIPs, and the Conservative's pledge to scrap it, is discouraging potential Home Inspectors from entering training. Some have even quit the course. We shall maintain the pressure.
7. There have been ongoing problems with the campaign website - entirely the fault of Pipex, our server host. A temporary site is up and running and will be refined in due course. On-line registering of support to the campaign is now possible again - providing that the resultant error message is ignored! The message does actually get through to us.
8. There follows the text of the press release issued today. Please copy it to your media contacts.
Kind regards to you all,
Nick