Legal news

Government calls time on HIPs

Jonathan Winston Jonathan Winston
2 min read

Home information packs have been suspended by the new government which looks set to ban them completely. The packs have been suspended for anyone selling their home from May 21 onwards but the government will need new legislation before it can outlaw them. It was also announced that energy performance certificates will be retained.

The death knell for HIPs came when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledged to scrap them in their coalition agreement. The Tories have long been opposed to HIPs, calling them a home information tax and the party claimed that the previous Labour administration planned to use them as a means to justify a council tax rise. Housing Minister Grant Shapps said: “By suspending home information packs today, it means that home sellers will be able to get on with marketing their home without having to shell out hundreds of pounds upfront.”

HIPs have divided opinion ever since their introduction in 2007. The then Housing Minister Yvette Cooper promoted the scheme by saying it would reduce the amount of time taken to buy and sell a home by giving information to prospective buyers upfront. However the packs cost prospective sellers between £299 and £350 and estate agents said that far from helping the housing market, they hindered it by discouraging people from putting their property onto the market.

Estate agents have generally welcomed the move to scrap HIPs but the move will not be so welcome among the hundreds of people who had retrained as home inspectors and who now may well be made redundant as a result. The Association of Home Information Pack Providers says that between 3,000 and 10,000 jobs could be affected.
 

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