October 2008

HIP Matters Director Appointed Chairman of IPPA

Simon Thomas is appointed as Chairman of quality assurance organisation, plus an update on our 'No Sale - No Fee' HIP and a brief preview of our latest investment in HIP technology.


September 2008

EPCs Required For Pre-HIP Properties

A look at the regulations relating to the requirement for EPCs on properties marketed prior to the introduction of HIPs

June 2008

HIP Matters Launches the No Sale - No Fee HIP

HIP Matters is delighted to announce the launch of our No Sale - No Fee Home Information Pack. Quite simply, if you sell your home within 9 months, you will pay for your HIP in full from the proceeds of the sale. If, however, your home remains unsold after 9 months, you will keep your HIP but won't have to pay even a penny for it.

Please contact us for further information.

HIP Matters Newsletter - March 2008

HIP Matters Ltd and the Conservative Party Home Buying Review

Last month I was invited to Westminster by Shadow Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, to discuss HIPs in the context of the Conservative’s Home Buying Review. I’d arranged a small party of independent HIP Providers and Energy Assessors to meet the Shadow Minister in order to provide some balance to his review, and believe that both parties found the day to be very useful.

Our intention was to convince Mr Shapps that, should the Conservatives win the next election, he should not scrap HIPs as he has previously stated his intention to be, but improve them instead. We feel that whilst the Home Information Pack has been diluted and poorly introduced, it is a step in the right direction and with appropriate improvements can be made into something that genuinely improves the home buying/selling process for all involved.

Alarmingly, we discovered during the meeting that the Conservative policy to scrap HIPs is based upon incorrect information in relation to the end of 1^st Day Marketing (on May 31^st this year). Mr Shapps was under the commonly held impression that from 1^st June a full HIP will need to be available before marketing can commence when, in fact, all required documents must be present with the exception of the Local Authority and Water & Drainage Searches, which will need to have been ordered, but not necessarily received. There will be no reason for any delay, at least for HIP Matters’ clients, as the only potential hold up will be in making an appointment to carry out the energy survey, which we will normally be able to arrange when/before the Estate Agent prepares their details if necessary.

Grant Shapps was obviously very interested to learn this information and he has invited us to provide ongoing input and feedback to his Home Buying Review. The following excerpt from an email I subsequently sent to him explains some of the ideas we've suggested so far:

 "I think that some sort of pack should be produced by the buyer (let's call it a Buyer Info Pack or BIP), but it should demonstrate that they have the ability to proceed - i.e. they have the funds in place.

One purpose of the HIP is to reduce duplication - all relevant info about the property is supposed to be provided up front so that all potential buyers can consider it. If a buyer has an offer accepted, starts paying the associated costs & then has to pull out because they find all is not as it seems, then this means that a subsequent potential buyer must pay the same costs to get the same information, which is clearly a situation that should be avoided if possible & is what the HIP was intended to avoid.

If the HIP legislation had been well executed this problem would usually be avoided. If it were then tied in with the BIP & also an agreement for each party to deposit, perhaps 1% of the agreed price, which would go to the other party if either pulled out, then we would have:

A commitment by both parties;
Evidence of the property's condition & 'buyableness';
Evidence that the buyer is in a position to proceed (a significant reason for sales collapsing);
All the information required for the sale to proceed quickly to completion, once it's been agreed.

To ensure the HIP achieves it's part in this process it needs to include:

An HCR (including valuation to meet CML requirements);
Searches that are acceptable to all parties and are dynamic/updatable so they don't 'expire';
Mandatory info to include Home Contents & Home Use Forms and additional searches required for the particular property (e.g. flood or mining searches where applicable);
A Sale Contract that can be signed as soon as a sale is agreed;
And obviously an EPC!"
 
Please send us your thoughts and ideas using the contact form at the top of the page.

When asked and answered by a local independent HIP Provider you’re really only going to get one response, but is this based on solid reasoning, or is it merely a biased point of view? There are strong arguments for using a local company in terms of service – easier contact with accountable people, fewer ‘links in the chain’ and therefore speedier response, local knowledge and a friendly face allowing for better working relationships etc. However, these could be seen as subjective points and, in truth, the way the company is run will have at least as much to do with these factors as where it is based.

So are there any more objective reasons for choosing a local HIP partner? Looking at how the basic components of a HIP are compiled then we start to see how a local company is far better placed to provide an efficient and accurate service. The fact that our streets and neighbourhoods have been continuously redeveloped over the years means that the information we rely on to establish the title and charges on properties must constantly be updated. Unfortunately this is something that has been overlooked in a surprising number of cases and this is something that a local HIP Provider is ideally placed to identify.

The following two copies of Land Registry Title Plans are the result of a search request on exactly the same address. The first is the initial plan returned last year by the Land Registry, which would have been perfectly correct until the construction of a new property on the road in the early 1980s. Having visited the property we were able to identify that the highlighted property was clearly not the required one – something a national provider, who outsources their EPCs, would have been unable to recognise. The relatively new house had caused the properties on the upper half of the road to be completely re-numbered, which hadn’t been reflected on the Land Registry’s records. Our local position and area knowledge allowed us to work with our search provider to remedy the problem before it became an issue. A remote national HIP Provider would have no opportunity to do this and in many cases would almost certainly have used the original Title Plan and Register, thereby creating an invalid HIP that would fail to establish the correct title to the property.

The above example is not the only one of its’ type that we’ve encountered recently and whilst nobody can guarantee that mistakes will never be made, the fact that we were able to successfully remedy these cases before they became problematic, demonstrates how a locally based HIP Provider is best placed to deliver HIPs accurately, on time, first time.

Local Authority Searches

One of the grey areas that we believe the Government should have clarified before introducing HIPs is the question of whether Personal Local Authority Searches should be routinely accepted by all parties involved in the conveyancing process. Whilst it is quite clear that the inclusion of appropriately sourced personal searches are entirely acceptable in terms of providing a compliant HIP, there is some debate over whether or not they will be accepted by a buyer’s Solicitor, with some demanding that ‘Official’ searches be sourced directly from the relevant Council. The problem seems to lie with the fact that any individual can request a ‘personal’ search, thereby creating doubt over the quality of the resulting document. All HIP Matters’ searches are supplied by suitably qualified and insured providers in line with the Property Codes Compliance Board’s ‘Search Code’, which we believe ensures delivery of an accurate, high quality product. In recognition, however, of the desire that some parties might have for ‘Official’ searches, we have arranged to source these if requested. There is an additional cost involved, which varies depending on the relevant Local Authority, and delivery timescales may also be affected, but if you have a client who expresses a concern regarding this issue then please let us know and we’ll be able to provide a suitable solution.