As everyone should be aware, from today all residential properties coming onto the market require a HIP unless they come under one of a small number of exceptions. There is still some confusion over properties currently requiring a HIP. Can I again re-iterate that providing the property was marketed before the relevant date, a HIP is currently not required and no decision has been made as to when this may change. Anyone telling you differently is incorrect.
The Association has issued a press release which has resulted in many media calls. http://www.naea.co.uk/about/latest_news_details.asp?id=390&PageNo=1
The House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee have considered the latest regulations and I thought you might like to see their main comments. The full transcript along with our own submission can be accessed through the link below.
Home Information Packs: Views of practitioners still divided– Lords Committee
The House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee has today published a range of comments from practitioners in the housing market, which show that views about HIPs are still divided.
The Government has introduced HIPs for sales of residential properties in three phases: four-bedroom properties from 1 August 2007; three-bedroom properties from 10 September; and all properties from 14 December.
Regulations laid in late-November provide that, until 1 June 2008, while the lease must be included in the HIP, other leasehold documents will not have to be included. The documents in question include property management rules, summaries of service charges, and requests for payments towards matters such as ground rent and building damage insurance.
In its comments on these Regulations, the Merits Committee recognisesthat the Government has laid them in order to lessen the burden which the HIP requirements place on those marketing homes. But the Committee also recalls its concern about the original policy that, without the mandatory inclusion of Home Condition Reports, HIPs might imperfectly achieve the objective of providing home-buyers with better information.
The Committee has received comments from a number of interested parties: the Association of Home Information Pack Providers; the Council for Mortgage Lenders; the Council of Property Search Organisations; the Law Society; the National Association of Estate Agents; the Royal Institution of Charted Surveyors; and the WWF. Practitioners in the housing market are split in their response to the HIP initiative in general, and the effects of the latest Regulations in particular.
The Committee urges the Government to keep the implementation of HIP policy under review and to provide full information about the practical effects of its introduction.
In its report on the Home Information Pack (Amendment) Regulations 2007 (SI 2007/3301), the Merits Committee reviews the changes that the Government have made to the content and timing of their HIP policy over the last year, and draws on comments made to it by a number of interested organisations. The Committee has reported the Regulations on the ground that they “give rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House”.