HIP HIP Hooray, HIPS are History (but you still need an EPC)

Sellers and estate agents are no longer required to have or to provide copies of HIPs with effect from 21 May 2010.

In an important step at a point of fragile recovery in the housing market, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps announced that with immediate effect, they are suspending the requirement for homeowners to provide a Home Information Pack (HIP) when selling their homes.

Mr Pickles laid an Order suspending HIPs with immediate effect, pending primary legislation for a permanent abolition. The Secretary of State has taken this swift action in order to avoid uncertainty and prevent a slump in an already fragile housing market. Today's announcement sends a clear message of encouragement to people thinking of selling their home that they can put it on the market with less cost and hassle.

HIPs are currently holding back the housing market because sellers are having to fork-out extra cash, sometimes hundreds of pounds, just to be able to put their home up for sale. Suspending HIPs will reduce the cost of selling a home, remove a layer of regulation from the process and provide a welcome help to the housing market during the recovery. It will also mean a saving for consumers to the tune of £870m over ten years, giving sellers more money in their pocket to spend in the wider economy.

Mr Pickles and Mr Shapps also said that the Government is determined to help people reduce their energy bills, improve our energy security and tackle climate change by increasing the energy efficiency of their homes. Sellers will therefore still be required to commission, but won't need to have received, an EPC before marketing their property, and the Government will consider how the EPC can play its part in the new drive for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy.

HIPS were introduced in 2007 in an attempt to reduced the number of property transactions falling through as the attrition rate is typically around 30%. Flawed from the start; this new dogma was somewhat undermined as demonstrated during the consultation period when I asked a senior civil servant why all the paperwork had to be in place before a property went onto the market. She replied "to enable buyers to pull out more quickly."

HIPs ultimately had no impact on the number of abortive transactions as buyers showed no interest in them. However their high up front cost undoubtedly deterred many hard up homeowners from selling thus reducing consumer choice in a very difficult market.

HIPS will be missed by no-one (except the HIP providers) and I am delighted to offer vendors the opportunity to get onto the market at no cost by providing the required EPC for free. Call us on 023 92 602155 to find out how to claim youe free EPC.