NEWS

Goverment Snubs HIP reform Petition

The government has refused to give home sellers a grace period to prepare a Home Information Pack (HIP) for their property despite a recent petition to Downing Street asking for one signed by nearly 1,700 members of the public.

Although home owners currently only need to pay up front for a HIP and "make a commitment" to obtain one before putting their home on the market, after April 5th this concession is to be dropped, Downing Street has confirmed.

Instead, a full HIP will have to be completed, submitted to the Department of Communities and Government - with payment - and returned back before the property can legally be advertised 'for sale'.

Many experts argue that because HIPs are complicated documents, the process will delay a home going on the market by several weeks. The government claims the wait will be between three and five days.
And any agent or homeowner advertising a property without a HIP will be fined up to £200 a day if caught out by local Trading Standards Officers, it is claimed.

"Not content with presiding over an estimated 20 per cent fall in the value of our homes, 75,000 of them about to be repossessed, and sleepless nights for a half million people worried about losing their homes, the government is charging sellers for a sales pack no one looks at, and fines them if they try to find a buyer on day one with a HIP," says Trevor Kent, former president of the National Association of Estate Agents and the man who lodged the petition on the No.10 website.

If you are thinking of selling and require information regarding HIP's please contact JP & Brimelow in Chorlton, Didsbury or Withington.

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