With compulsory home information packs due 1 June 2007, we want to know your opinions.
Home information packs are expected to be a good thing for first-time buyers. HIPs will contain a condition report (or detailed survey), an energy certificate indicating how expensive the home will be to run, title documents and local authority search results. This means the cost of conveyancing is effectively passed to the seller.
But the government hopes that because potential buyers will have access to all the info they need before making an offer, fewer deals will fall through and the process will be speeded up.
However critics says the average £1,000 cost of compiling a HIP will put people off selling their homes. And buyers will not trust the info in a HIP because it provided by the seller.
Plus experts say the introduction of HIPs may lead to a fall in the number of properties changing hands and this could in turn affect economic growth. Check out the news story here.
So what do you reckon? Are HIPs a good or bad idea? Will you be trying to sell your home before the HIP deadline. Do you think it's the way forward for the housing market?
I am all for HIPS! I am tired of bearing the cost of surveys as a (buyer), to determine the condition of a property. Having this information prior to viewing would be invaluable in regards to my time and expectations. Do I trust the Home Inspectors Survey or other detailed survey because it is provided by the seller? Well depends, on the acuracy of the report. If I questioned it and I was concerned, I would be more than willing to commission my own Independent survey on the property. (Because I would be considering making an offer) The fact that all the searches and other documents would be collated prior to the offer, is great! The current system is too beauracratic, and slow. Where I come from (USA) there is no guzamping, and if the seller decides to take a higher offer, he has to pay me a fee for the inconveinence he has caused and to stop my purchase. This is effective from the time he accepts my offer. What is everyone making such a fuss about? There are no new documents being placed in this Pack except 'the survey'! As for the cost, lets be honest here, the seller will simply adjust his price to recoup the cost of the pack and for your remark about the housing market. Well, it seems to me there could be more reasons behind there being a drop in home sells other than the introduction of the HIP pack, i.e. recession, unemployment, or just the mere fact that housing prices are so inflated that the average earner can not afford to get on the property ladder! I know everyone fears change, but what other than the process is being changed? HIP is the way forward to speed up the selling process, to wait up to 12 weeks to purchase a home is outrageous and unacceptable.
HIPS are supposed to reduce the amount of time taken to sell a property - I'm not convinced they will. The HIP needs preparing which could take a few weeks, especially if you live in a leasehold property, so delay is simply added to the beginning of the process.
They will improve the decision making process for the buyer, but once an offer is accepted the process will be almost the same as it is now.
Offer accepted, buyer gets a proper survey, not a Micky Mouse Home Inspector report, it's still needed because your mortgage company will want one, mortgage offer, buyer does searches (if there's a mistake I need to be able to sue someone), contracts drawn up etc etc.
It's not the panacea the Govt thinks it is, but they will get an income flow from the VAT charged so they will be happy.
If I was purchasing a property, even with a home info pack, I still want the usual survey reports. also, what if the property had been on the market for a year, I wanna see an up to date info pack.
If was selling a house, its extra expense and an inconvenience for me, infact, along with stamp duty, these new HIPS things are putting me off buying and selling, which I do quite often
HIP might tell you that a house has double glazing but will it tell you when that double glazing is faulty and leads to condensation. I think not. Would it not be much more sensible to have a system whereby, should a sale fall through, any survey already done should be passed on to the new buyer (with cost passed on). This makes sense to me but I think surveyors would'nt like it as it would cut their work.
Well, I don't think you understand the use of HIPS, the survey would be passed onto any new buyer if the sale should not go through, however the responsibility for keeping the pack updated is on the seller itself. I believe every survey in the pack would become invalid in a years time anyway therefore a seller would have to commission another survey if they had not sold in a years time. As for the other persons comment stating it would put them off, I find this interesting, as would you not want to have this information prior to viewing, to use your own time wisely, I have seen some sellers go to some length to hide certain defects, and placing all the responsibility towards the surveyor is unfair, as they can only report on what they are able to see. It is only in the early stages and copies a successful system currently being used in Denmark I believe. They too had there sceptics but everyone thinks it is a good tool now, when purchasing a house.
No Lucy I do know that the HIP will be available to all new potential buyers. What I am sceptical of is its' validity as I would most certainly not trust this alone and would still have to have an in-depth survey done to satisfy my own mind. Placing all the responsibility on the surveyor is why I pay £800 for his/her services and they are trained to see through any hidden defects and to find things that the sellers aren't even aware of. You appear to be thinking of a mortgage survey which is just a quick look around by some twit. (A bit like the HIP come to think)
Originally posted by Lucy1709: Well, I don't think you understand the use of HIPS, the survey would be passed onto any new buyer if the sale should not go through, however the responsibility for keeping the pack updated is on the seller itself. I believe every survey in the pack would become invalid in a years time anyway therefore a seller would have to commission another survey if they had not sold in a years time. As for the other persons comment stating it would put them off, I find this interesting, as would you not want to have this information prior to viewing, to use your own time wisely, I have seen some sellers go to some length to hide certain defects, and placing all the responsibility towards the surveyor is unfair, as they can only report on what they are able to see. It is only in the early stages and copies a successful system currently being used in Denmark I believe. They too had there sceptics but everyone thinks it is a good tool now, when purchasing a house.
i don't agree at all, its the surveyors job to find problems and if they're good at their job, they should be able to find any problems with the house. i think its an overhead that unnecessary especially for a bad credit mortgage(new buyers) also Most people would like to see a house before they buy anyway, so HIP or no HIP they will visit the house.
In theory they sound like a good idea and one that ought to reduce the number of chains that collapse because a survey finds a problem or someone markets a house without being sure they want to move. However I'm still not convinced that I'd trust a survey conducted by someone being paid by the seller (how do you know its not their mate?!) and wonder how frequently the HIPs will have to be updated and I'm sure mortgage providers will still expect buyers to pay for surveys to get an up to date valuation. Also what happens if someone finds it difficult to sell their home - do they have to spend money getting repeated HIPs if they have a use-by-date and if they don't have a use-by-date what value would there be with a 2 year old HIP?
