Home Information Packs (HIPs)
The government's intention was that HIPs would speed up the home buying and selling process by providing all the necessary legal documents at the start of the process when marketing starts. Although the debate rages on as to their effectiveness the reality is that it is now not possible to start marketing a house or flat without having first commissioned a HIP.
The documents that must be included in each HIP are:
- An index (i.e. a list of the contents of the Pack)
- An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) or, if the home is not yet physically complete, a Predicted Energy Assessment
- A sale statement (summarising the terms of the sale)
- A property information questionnaire
- Evidence of title
- Standard searches (i.e. local authority enquiries and a drainage and water search)
- Where appropriate, commonhold information (including a copy of the commonhold community statement)
- Where appropriate, a copy of the lease
- In the case of new builds, a certificate, or interim certificate, showing the sustainability of the home, where it complies with the standards under the Code for Sustainable Homes, or a nil-rated certificate, where the property has not been assessed against the code.
In addition sellers can include on a voluntary basis:
- A Home Condition Report
- A home contents form
- Non standard searches
- Other documents and, where appropriate, additional leasehold information
- A legal summary
Why should you choose Windeatts to provide your HIP?
HIPs contain a large amount of complex, legal information and solicitors are best placed to prepare and interpret these packs. Much of the pack's contents are documents that we have always needed to produce in connection with house transactions. We are able to obtain EPCs promptly from local energy assessors.
If you instruct us to handle your property sale, we will not charge you a fee for preparing your HIP (although you will still have to pay for the searches and EPC) provided that we handle the eventual completed sale using the HIP we have prepared. In most cases we can produce a HIP within a few days (for leasehold properties where we have to obtain information from the landlord it may take a little longer). We can discuss with you what additional authorised documents you would like included in the pack.
The reality is that HIPs on their own make little difference to the speed with which the transaction proceeds once a buyer has been found. In conjunction with a number of Solicitors in the Plymouth area, our Kingsbridge office has therefore subscribed to FASTMOVE which is a protocol operated by local solicitors and licensed conveyancers. For more information visit www.fastmove.info.
Contact Tony Osborne (Totnes) or Nicola Campbell (Kingsbridge).