After years of trial runs, changes and delay, Home Information Packs (HIPs) are with us from today. Much watered-down form its original form, the HIP now applies only to homes with 4 or more bedrooms.
The contents of the ‘revised’ HIP are :-
Compulsory
- An Energy Performance Certificate
- Evidence of title
- Copies of planning, listed building or building regulations consents
- A local search
Optional
- Guarantees for any work on the property
- Home condition report
There are exemptions for properties as follows
- properties already on the market on 1 June 2007 will not need a HIP unless they are still on the market after 31 December 2007; and
- time-sensitive parts of the HIP will not need to be refreshed where the property is withdrawn from the market and remarketed by the same vendor within one year of the original date on which it was put on the market.
There is widespread scepticism about the usefulness of the HIP, so, whether we should be saying 'HIP HIP hooray' is very much in doubt. Time will tell!
