hipCENTRAL Blog

I was just reading an article in the Guardian about the 900,000 enquiries that Learndirect gets every year from people wanting to switch career. The thing that struck me the most was that Domestic Energy Assessment was the most asked after.  I hope this still isn’t the case as I don’t believe there is currently enough well paid work to sustain the existing energy assessors…

A shake-up of the way local authority searches are carried out will be announced by the government today in an effort to speed up the housebuying process, amid criticism that some councils are dragging their heels and may delay people’s home information packs.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have just read that savvy home buyers
are using the information provided in HIPs to negotiate discounts on properties.  This is great, especially for first time buyers, but the full benefits of HIPS will only be realised when the Home Condition Report (HCR)  is made manadatory as it is the survey that many stretched first time buyers skimp on resulting in the possibility of their buying properties with significant hidden defects without realising it.  Additionally, the information in the HCR will provide further opportunities to negotiate discounts.

Tesco has pulled its property website but, according to the Times, they are thinking about launching a full estate agency service and there is no doubt that it will be cheap and the chances are they will follow the example of Asda and offer HIPS for free. Watch this space - they obviously want the seven out of eight pounds that are not spent at Tesco!

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) has questioned the Conservative’s plans to scrap the home information packs (Hips).

The number of three or more bedroom homes available for sale has fallen sharply since the introduction of home information packs, a survey showed yesterday.

The study, by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, showed a 37% drop in the number of properties put on the market which needed a pack last month compared with the same period a year ago. This trend continued from August, when, the RICS said, the number of people looking to sell four-bedroom homes dropped by 51%

A LEADING estate agency claims that the advent of Home Information Packs has coincided with a 15 per cent drop in property stock levels across the UK.

Hamptons International say figures from their research department show that stock levels of new instructions fell by 24 per cent in London and six per cent elsewhere, when comparing summer this year to spring.

The Tories have announced today at their party conference in Blackpool that they will scrap the new home information packs!

Grant Shapps Shadow housing minister, claims that the Labour party ignored warnings about HIPS:

“The experts ridiculed them. The industry doesn’t want them and I can announce that the next Conservative government will scrap them.”

The accident-prone home information packs regime suffered another blow after it emerged yesterday that a main trainer of energy assessors has been stripped of its status as an approved centre.

Read the rest of this entry »

Town halls have been ordered to hit house sellers with £200 fines if they fail to use Home Information Packs.

It means local councils could now rake in fortunes from home owners who disregard the rules.

The fines have been given the go-ahead by Housing Minister Yvette Cooper, empowering trading standards officers to impose the cash penalties.