Suspension of HIPs by new Government
The new coalition Government has suspended Home
Information Packs (HIPs) with immediate effect from 21st May
2010.
21 I 05 I 10
Homeowners seeking to sell homes,
which will include home builders, will not now be required to
provide a HIP when selling residential property. An Energy
Performance Certificate and a Predicted Energy Assessment however,
will still be required.
In addition to the
suspension, the Government will be seeking to implement primary
legislation abolishing HIPs permanently.
Although the Government
have declared that this swift action has been taken to both
stimulate and protect the fragile housing market, the HIPs industry
currently employs 30,000 people so is not without its negative
effects, as the future for those people is now unclear.
Estate Agents are happy
that HIPs have been abolished because it means that homes for sale
can be marketed without the wait for a HIP to be produced and home
owners will not need to find the extra cash to buy one prior to
sale.
We were aware that any
new Government consisting of the Conservative Party would want to
suspend and abolish HIPs, and that the Association of HIP Providers
were in consultation before the election with the new Housing
Minister Grant Shapps, but the swiftness of the action take by the
Government still comes as a surprise to many, particularly those
homeowners who have paid for a HIP within the last week!
In response to the suspension, Mike Ockenden,
Director General of AHIPP, made the following statement:
“We are hugely
disappointed to hear that Grant Shapps has reneged on his promise
to review the packs before any other action was taken. Over 3,000
jobs will go and 10,000 will be affected as a result of the
suspension of HIPs and £100million revenue will be lost to the
Treasury in VAT receipts. However, we want to work with the
Government and we still want the consultation we have been
promised. We are not suggesting that HIPs should be retained. AHIPP
has accepted that they will be scrapped. We have been
proposing for months that a legal or exchange ready pack be
instructed at the start of the sales process. We think it would be
crazy to throw the baby out with the bathwater and remove at a
stroke all the good things that have come about with HIPs, and the
lessons we have learnt. If we do this, then the opportunity for
reform will have been lost for a generation.”
For more information on this or any other property matter
contact David
Pittick.