home seller information pack

[sje0703]

We are thinking about putting our house for up sale very soon. If we put on the market prior to June 2007 will we still need to provide a Home Information Pack or are houses put up for sale prior to June 2007 exempt from this?
Thanks in advance of any replies.

[babylongroup]

hi
rumours are rife that sellers packs or HIPs will still be dropped. who knows ?
The word on the street is that if you place your property on the market even up to the end of may 2007 then you will not need a sellers pack. we have also heard that if your property sits on the market for ages and does not sell then it can stay on the market until March 2008 until you would need a pack !
You may wish to keep an eye on the law society website for up to the minute updates on HIPs.
Good Luck !!

[crapmemory]

babylongroup is right. I checked this out yesterday. What I want to know now (but don't want to discuss with an estate agent yet) is what goes into a HIP and who writes it and who pays for it?

[babylongroup]

the exact contents of the pack will not be decided until the end of march/ early april. the outline is that it will contain the local search, deeds ( maybe ), a survey, an energy efficiency assesment of the property and land registry plans.
it will be written or handled by solicitors or specific HIP companys, maybe even the estate agent. the estate agent for example could offer the pack for free and the charge for it would be absorbed in the overall selling fee. if you want to change estate agent if your house does not sell then you will probably have to buy the pack off the estate agents. all of the above is rumour and assumption. We should all know the official requirements by the end of this month.
The important bit is that you will not be allowed to put your property on the market until the HIP is completed. it could well be 4 weeks + for the HIP to be prepared.

[flyciderman]

I think the survey part is not to be included, but the real problem is that time is running out and this is just one more ill thought out load of rubbish.

In any case HIPS will not and never would solve the problem that it set out to do

[jedimistress]

What was the HIP supposed to sort out? I'm really curious / dubious.

[flyciderman]

It was supposed to solve many of the problems with selling and buying a house, a) speed up the time taken b) cut the cost c) reduce the number of abortive sales d) and reduce the costs.

But they did not tell us how by spending a large amount of money on the HIPS before you put you house on the market would help. In any case the HIPS would need updating if you did not sell within somthing like 6 months.