The announcement states:

"The Government fully expects the changes being made today will mean no extra burdens for estate agents, and for example they will still be able to advise potential clients about properties they expect to be coming onto the market. Under the changes made today, from April 6 sellers will need to have the basic HIP before their home is marketed, which is expected to take 3 to 5 days to compile."

Leading anti-HIP campaigner, Nick Salmon, head of SPLINTA (Sellers’ Pack Law is Not the Answer) ridiculed the statement by pointing out that the new Property Information Questionnaire that sellers will have to complete before coming to the market will in many cases have to be administered by the estate agent in order that it can be incorporated into the electronic version of a HIP. "This will take administrative time and money. It is an extra burden on agents and the consumer will end up paying" said Salmon.

Salmon admitted to being puzzled by CLG stating that agents ‘will still be able to advise potential clients about properties they expect to be coming to the market’.

"Apart from CLG obviously not knowing the difference between clients (who are sellers) and applicants (who are buyers) ever since HIPs began it has not been possible for agents to tell buyers that a particular property might be coming to the market, unless the order for a HIP had been made. This has killed the market for many agents and has deprived thousands of home owners of opportunities to sell. I do not understand CLG saying agents can still publicise property not yet on the market."

According to SPLINTA the idea that HIPs will take 3 to 5 days to compile is an idealistic estimate. Nick Salmon explained that, "The current type of HIP can indeed be completed without searches within a week but when the Property Information Questionnaire comes in it will be likely to delay matters. Most home owners will find they can’t get to the market much under two weeks. That won’t matter for some people but for those in desperate financial straits and needing to sell quickly the delay could be catastrophic."

SPLINTA maintains that the Home Information Pack is a useless and expensive impediment for home owners and is of little or no interest to potential buyers.

Nick Salmon FNAEA (Honoured)

UPDATE FROM SPLINTA

8th December 2008

ANNOUNCEMENT BY CLG TODAY.

Communities and Local Government has announced today that the ending of First Day Marketing is delayed yet again - to April 6th 2009.

Insurance backed searches are also given a reprieve and can be used in a HIP until next April.

The Property Information Questionnaire that CLG consulted on earlier this year will be introduced into the HIP from next April.

There is still no drop-dead date for properties that came on the market pre-implementation dates to have a HIP (and we doubt that there ever will be).

Margaret Beckett’s statement accompanying the announcement indicates that once again we have a housing minister fundamentally out of touch with the practical working of the pack AND the market.

"Home Information Packs are potentially a vital aid to consumers who are seeking to purchase a home, and I am firmly committed to ensuring they work as well as possible. That is why the changes made today will make sure consumers are better protected, better informed and better assisted when buying a home. It is essential that all buyers are able to see the HIP as early as possible to ensure they are benefiting from this important information, and that sellers are getting to see the pack they are paying for."

The announcement in full can be found here:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1091058

The Minister still has not cottoned on to the fact that, overall, the consumer is now paying far more for a property transaction than in pre-HIP days. Whilst some local authority searches have come down in price it remains the case that many buyers are being advised to commission their own Official searches – thus causing a duplication of cost. And then there is the small matter of agents, solicitors, and pack providers making profits from the pack. Whilst there is clearly nothing wrong with taking commercial advantage from a business opportunity there are some very high mark-ups being applied to HIPs. I had a vendor call me to say her agent was charging £450 + Vat for a standard freehold pack; and today I have an example of one HIP provider suggesting that agents could charge £850 for a pack. Don’t be surprised if Which? soon launches an investigation into profiteering from HIPs. It will be another stick with which to beat the industry and I’m afraid it won’t wash with them if we were to point the finger at government and say ‘It’s their fault for creating the damn thing in the first place’.

We have yet to see the results of the consultation on the Property Information Questionnaire (to which SPLINTA made a submission) but we expect that it will closely resemble the draft questionnaire that accompanied the consultation document. That draft had a ‘Don’t Know’ box for each question and it is our bet that this will be the most used answer when sellers come to fill it in. Note that it is anticipated that answers made by sellers will not be the responsibility of an agent and that the document will fall outside of the Property Misdescription Act. Be grateful for small mercies!

We shall of course continue to lobby for First Day Marketing to continue after April 6th 2009 and to aid the Conservatives in their stated aim of abolishing the pack at the first opportunity. We must also remain extremely vigiliant in regard to the single survey now being run in Scotland. We believe that this could well pave the way towards an attempt at introducing the Home Condition Report in England and Wales. There remains much work for us to do!

Meanwhile, please be aware that the Office of Fair Trading is launching an investigation into estate agency and the working of the market. More on this shortly.

Kind regards

Nick Salmon FNAEA (Honoured)