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Hips trial begins in spite of critics

6th November 2006 | back to article listings BACK    print this article PRINT

A trial of the controversial Home Information Pack (Hip) programme begins today in six cities across the UK amid vociferous debate as to whether it will help or hinder the buying and selling process.

Homeowners living in Southampton, Newcastle, Northampton, Bath, Huddersfield and Cambridge will have the option of compiling a collection of documents which provides prospective buyers will all the necessary structural and historical information concerning a property.

But critics have continually blasted management of the scheme, arguing that the complexity and cost incurred in compiling such packs outweigh the tangible benefits to buyers.

Hips include evidence of title, copies of planning, listed building or building regulations consents, a local search, guarantees for work done on the property and an energy performance certificate.

If the trial, currently set for an unspecified time period, runs smoothly, the government plans to make Hips obligatory for all sellers by June next year.

Although most organisations in the property industry have never been against the theory of the packs, there has been widespread discontent in how the new certification scheme has been organised.

Michael Coogan, director of the CML, said last week that the intricate certificates now required for a Hip have becoming nothing more than "a costly indulgence" and an "example of poor implementation of European legislative requirements".

He continued to argue that "market forces should be the primary mechanism" for improving the trading process as opposed to the perceived heavy handed regulatory pressures from the government.

However, Chris Baker, director of Pocock & Shaw Estate Agents in Cambridge, said that in theory Hips should speed up the selling process because it means that buyers have access to the majority of information about a property from just one source.

However, he admitted that "there's still a lot of uncertainty" about the whole process meaning that it would not be right to force sellers to offer buyers a Hip.

"Because there are so many pack providers and it's new and unchartered territory, it needs to be an optional thing at this stage," Mr Baker explained.

Despite the continuing criticisms of the way that Hips have been managed, Paul Broadhead, deputy director general of AIHPP remained defiant in his conviction that UK property sellers will have to face up to their reality in the short-term future:

"It cannot be denied that [those who compile Hips] in particular have faced a rough ride over the last few months, with a great deal of uncertainty hanging over their future.

"However, I am confident that they will have a very important role to play, both in the roll out and once the packs become mandatory next year."

This is a press release by Assetz also available at http://press.assetz.co.uk/articles/3076.html. Alternatively, please see our full press release archive.

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