Q. It has now been some months since Home Information Packs (HIPs) were introduced for 3 bedroom properties and above. Are they having any impact on speeding up the conveyancing process and when will they be fully introduced?
A. Professional bodies indicate that HIPs are of little or no interest to sellers and buyers and that they have little or no effect on transactions. From our experience with HIPs we can only agree.
At present, as long as you have ordered a HIP, you can market your property immediately. This is called "first day marketing" and it means you can market your house as soon as you have ordered the HIP rather than having to wait until the HIP is received.
The major problem on the horizon is that after December 31 st2007 HIPs will automatically apply to all residential properties and first day marketing ceases, meaning that all properties must have a HIP before being marketed.
This will inevitably cause problems because there are substantial delays in having HIPs prepared because of problems getting searches quickly and of getting freehold information. Furthermore, the property market is under great pressure from reducing stock levels and falling prices.
Pressure is therefore being applied on the government to delay the full implementation of HIPs and also to continue to allow first day marketing so that the housing market does not grind to a halt in the New Year. More changes to the rules are therefore expected and we will keep you updated via the Gazette legal column.
Should you have any queries regarding this issue or a related issue please contact Keith Swan of Patterson, Glenton & Stracey Solicitors by email at ks@pgslaw.co.uk or by telephone on 0808 231 7043. Patterson, Glenton & Stracey have provided legal advice to the people of South Tyneside for over 125 years. For details of their full range of services and to view previous Gazette articles please log on to www.pgslaw.co.uk.
