Mayfair

HIPS scrapped by the Government

Today the new Conservative/Liberal coalition government announced the abolition of HIPS although the EPC aspect is to remain in accordance with EU legislation.

The Times reported "Home Information Packs (HIPs) are to be scrapped with immediate effect, the coalition Government announced today.

The unpopular packs — which contained information required before a seller could put their home on the market — was “pointless red-tape” that was “strangling the housing market”, the Housing Minister Grant Shapps said.

He was joined at a presentation by the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, the television presenter Kirstie Allsopp and Philip Bullman, from the National Association of Estate Agents. A clause in the Housing Act 2004 allows the Government to suspend HIPs immediately, although primary legislation is pending.

HIPs were brought into effect in August 2007 in England and Wales for properties with four or more bedrooms, before being gradually introduced across the rest of the market.

Homeowners and campaigners criticised the Labour policy, claiming that it had failed to help buyers and discouraged people from putting their property up for sale when the market needed a boost.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledged in their manifestos and in their coalition agreement to get rid of HIPs.

Energy Performance Certificates, which rate a home’s energy efficiency, will remain.

Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla.co.uk, the property website, said: “There were serious concerns that a delay in the scrapping of HIPs would harm the housing market by deterring would-be sellers from putting their homes on the market.

"The Government has responded quickly. The hope is that the demise of HIPs will boost the housing market recovery and, in turn, create further employment in the sector.”

Mayfair Office member Sam Biles of Creasey, Biles and King and The Wright Agency on the Isle of Wight says "It is always good to get rid of pointless bureaucracy and red tape. HIPs have caused a lot of hassle – time and money for the property market during what has been a very difficult few years, however I have mixed feelings.  On one hand it will save me and my team time and money and our clients several hundred pounds, on the other, my heart goes out to all those HIP providers, many of them small independents or one-man-bands who have set themselves up to provide this service who will now have to re-think their future.  HIPs were not all bad and I hope that some parts may remain – in my view it is sensible and prudent for sellers to ask their solicitors to do some preliminary work on the legal title and prepare a Property Information Form in advance of a sale and I hope this will continue as ‘best practice’ if not as a bureaucratic, statutory requirement. The energy performance certificate was perhaps pointless for many properties – it is obvious that a 16th century listed  manor house with no double glazing and an old oil-fired boiler is less efficient than a modern, well insulated ‘semi’ with a new gas-fired condensing boiler. A coloured graph is not necessary to show this and throughout the UK preparing and printing these graphs has probably done as much harm to the environment in travel for inspections, coloured ink and wasted paper as having them has done good.”

Whatever your views on HIPs one has to feel sorry for all those employed in this sort-lived industry who face an uncertain future

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