As you will all know by now HIPS will be compulsary for all properties fron the 14th December. Just a word of advice, shop around! I have heard of some poor folks being charged 600.00 for a HIPS. There is no justification for this, they cost a maximum of 275.00 to put together ( we do them at this cost price for our clients)so you can see the huge profits being made by HIPS providers. Don't be swayed by your EA, many are geting referral fees from the HIP providers.If you feel confident enough do your own. You can find an EPC inspector on line and get him to do the report for between 50 to 100.00. Go on line to the land registry and get office copies for 6.00,get a drainage search from your utilities supplier(average 43.00)and get your local search from your local authority(varible but usually between 120.00 to 140.00)The rest ie index and sales statement you can print off the net and just put it together with a spine, Far cheaper!This is a useless piece of legislation but avoid being ripped off, happy to help with queries.
Yes, another piece of useless Government legislation which serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever in the buying and selling of property in England and Wales but does provide the Chancellor with even more of your hard earnt Dosh. I would absolutely agree with Lawyerlady that sellers must shop around to avoid the EA rip-off. EA's are trying to recoup the training costs they incurred in training staff over the past 2 years which actually happened due to the Government changing their minds on how the HIP's was going to function and then re-writing the requirements of the HIP's Inspector. Yes, we all know it was implemented by the EU and the Government was obliged to follow but I don't see the French and Germans rushing to rip their citizens off quite as quick as our labour Government for the VAT returns. Skip the Hip! Mel.
Add the HIPS cost to the sale price. What goes round comes round. Except the buyer will pay for it twice - Are lenders and conveyancers accepting HIPS searches? I think not. Pathetic load of NL rubbish.
Matt, you have to add the cost of the lease from the land registry (£20.00 usually)if you don't already have a copy (most people do have one or can get one from their conveyancer who acted for them when they bought it). If it is a leasehold flat then you will need documents from the management company which you can obtain for a fee. If you are selling a leasehold then before you put it on the market just give yourself time to prepare the documents.It really is not difficult. Most conveyancers are accepting searches from private organisations as long as they are backed up by insurance but the packs do not contain enviromental or coal searches which are the main causes of fall throughs based on searches.I heard today of a client who may have his house repossessed because he cannot pay for a HIPS up front, will not pass a credit rating so can't have a deferred option and so can't put his house on the market. What a mess to be in because of an appalling piece of legislation.
That's handy - I have kept a copy of the lease with all the other documentation and correspondence when the sale of my flat went through. So presumably, I can re-submit all this with the leasehold info when I come to sell, plus submit the invoices for each year's service charge/ground rent I have incurred in my ownership.
Originally posted by MELBOY: Yes, another piece of useless Government legislation which serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever in the buying and selling of property in England and Wales but does provide the Chancellor with even more of your hard earnt Dosh. Mel.
I have mixed feelings on HIPs. OTOH they have been introduced in a piecemeal way on the other something has to be done about chancers. We lived near a cottage with rotten - and almost completely inaccesable roof timbers - and spent years watching a succession of would-be buyers paying for searches only to pull out when the full horror was revealed. The vendor just kept schtum all the way through as did the EA.
No doubt it paid for the local surveyor's holiday home in Tuscany.
Originally posted by velvet: HIPs wouldn't help with that situation surely - there is no survey included in the pack.
Correct. The survey element was removed by the Government to avoid court/legal action by the RICS (Surveyors)who were after getting hips skipped for good. The Government had little choice, as an act of appeasement to get the RICS off their backs, in order to get the rest of the HIPS implemented. Mel.
Originally posted by Arrabiata: Quick question - if i change estate agents (my 2 bed house has been on the market since September)will i need to get a HIP? Thanks.
Yes, you will. You only have to start the process of HIPS application once registered with an EA, you do not need to have one in place before marketing with an Agent. Another recent ruling change. Skip the Hip! Mel.
Mmmmm! Lawyer Lady I think you need to impart some of your information to our local EA's then. Once more, conflicting information regarding HIP's.
It has also been announced today that regarding house sales HIP's are having a direct result on the housing market slowdown and it is not just all down to the time of year and credit/mortgage crunch. Mel.
Originally posted by MELBOY: It has also been announced today that regarding house sales HIP's are having a direct result on the housing market slowdown and it is not just all down to the time of year and credit/mortgage crunch. Mel.
There are certainly other factors at play causing the downturn than just the 'credit crunch'. I think the HIP is only a small one.
More important is the recent overvaluation of the housing stock resulting in a serious problem of affordability.
You are absolutely right that HIPS are having an effect on the housing market. The sellers who would put their house on the market to see if it sells before looking to buy a house are not doing so now ,leading to a stagnation of the Housing Market. Nobody would deny there are other factors involved but the new instructions for house sales dropped off the edge of the cliff the day after HIPS were introduced.Nobody is going to pay for a HIPS pack just to test the market.Don't forget that this Govt. promised not to bring in a full roll out of HIPS until they had revealed and debated the results of the trials carried out and which they have not yet published (they are looking for a way to put positive spin on them)There is a further problem about who actually owns the HIPS pack, many argue it is the person who pays for it so if your agent offers you a delayed payment plan and you wish to move agents , you could have a problem because apparently some agents are charging excessive fees to release the HIPS pack.Yvette Cooper argues that search fees are cheaper so HIPS are working, we have seen no evidence of this , there is no reduction in the cost of searches and in fact from 1st January drainage searches are increasing.Also if your house is on the market for longer than six months without selling you will have to pay again to renew the searches.Has anyone actually found a benefit to having a HIPS pack?
Well, tomorrow my Son is placing his property on the market as he has found a property he wants to buy. It will be interesting to see how he gets on with the selling process at this time of year and into 2008.
I know of 2 people who have had to have HIP's reports for their sales and at the time of writing this and 8 weeks into the sale (both properties sold by the way) they still not have had their completed HIP's reports in their hands yet! What's the hold up? Council Searches and main drainage reports they are waiting for. The so called 'energy reports' were a joke! and the only good part is they havn't had to actually pay for a HIP's because it was inclusive of the EA's deal for placing their properties onto the market with them HIP's does absolutely nothing to speed up the house buying and selling process. Mel.
Originally posted by velvet: Mel is it really true that in the energy report you get 'points' for having energy saving lightbulbs and energy efficient appliances like w/ms?
It sounds too silly to be true, but that probably means it is
It would appear so. The main inspection is for the correct depth insulation for loft and cavity wall and your boiler efficiency and whether your rads. have TRV's fitting and so it goes on and on and on. Jon, my Son is looking at buying a house right now which has had an EPC (Energy Perfomance Certificate)and it has come in at the bottom of the grading so therefore it has failed on all counts of efficiency but it doesn't stop him from wanting to buy the property and the owner has no intention of putting the 'problems' right or even offered any form of discount to counter the EPC report. Time will tell on this HIP's nonsense especially in January when the 6 months are up for all those who went on a freebie from last August with HIP's. The only glimmer of hope on the horizon is that the Tories, if re-elected, have stated that they will cancel HIP requirements but as all politicians are lying bar stewards I doubt whether this will happen unless there is a really dramatic down turn in the property market and it needs to be kick started back into life. Mel.
Tories can get rid of HIPS, but they can't get rid of EPCs as these are an EU requirement - and will be required for ALL property (offices, factores, shops etc) over a certain size from next year.
We are in a position where we are tentatively looking - we do not HAVE to move, we would LIKE to and were going to test the market after Christmas.
There are too many other issues regarding the housing market at the moment and we are not prepared to commit to £300+ at this time.
It would appear so. The main inspection is for the correct depth insulation for loft and cavity wall
That will work well with our house then - not. We have had the loft converted, and we don't have cavity walls. I will make sure I buy some cheap e/s lightbulbs before we market though, it will make all the difference
quote:
Jon, my Son is looking at buying a house right now which has had an EPC (Energy Perfomance Certificate)and it has come in at the bottom of the grading so therefore it has failed on all counts of efficiency but it doesn't stop him from wanting to buy the property and the owner has no intention of putting the 'problems' right or even offered any form of discount to counter the EPC report. Mel.
That is exactly how I would feel (as both buyer and seller). If a poor energy report puts you off, you didn't really want the house in the first place.
I do think the energy efficiency of a house will more and more become an important factor in house buying.
Perhaps it may not be quite yet, but if there were two similar houses for sale, the one with the better rating would probably already have an advantage.
"Eco friendly", "sustainability" and terms of that nature are becoming very fashionable and this will, I think, have its effect on house buyers' criteria.
"Most conveyancers are accepting searches from private organisations as long as they are backed up by insurance..."
All the HIP does is save the buyer's solicitor from doing the local search. The water search is interesting but mostly no more than that. The EPC is irrelevant because nobody looks at it. I've found difficulty in getting hold of the HIP as the estate agents get sent them and don't know what to do with them, that just demonstrates how few potential buyers are wanting to see them.
If we are lucky an agent will send us a letter with a long URL where we can find the HIP - you know the sort of thing:
We phone them to ask them to e-mail the link so we don't have to laboriously type it all out and they can't do that! "We type it all out...", they say. Oh dear!
As a conveyancing solicitor I believe the information given in the post to be useful but I accept no liability except to fee-paying clients.
"Eco friendly", "sustainability" and terms of that nature are becoming very fashionable and this will, I think, have its effect on house buyers' criteria.
Yes exactly - fashionable. Fashions by their nature come and go.
So presumably, I can re-submit all this with the leasehold info when I come to sell, plus submit the invoices for each year's service charge/ground rent I have incurred in my ownership.
