The government’s botched roll-out of HIPs is distorting the market, says Michael Garson
By a series of tactical withdrawals announced periodically since the beginning of January 2005, the government has pulled back from the implementation of the home information pack (HIP) as originally conceived. The relegation of the home condition report (HCR) in July 2006 considerably weakened the potential for the pack to change the culture of the buying and selling process, despite the publicity extolling the energy performance certificate (EPC) and recommendation report. Other changes to permit first day marketing and to limit the compulsory content of the pack have been made for pragmatic reasons. However, by reducing the extent of seller disclosures at the marketing stage, these measures have undermined the usefulness of the pack at the later contractual stages of a transaction. The pack went live on 1 August 2007 for four-bedroom homes only and, before any feedback from the market had been published, three-bedroom properties were added from 10 September. The requirements for local and drainage searches and additional leasehold
