Property News NI: No Hips Replacement

The dreaded Home Information Packs are no more and there will be no 'HIPs' replacement, that the news coming from the new coalition government. In the first instance HIPs have been suspended, pending a bill being brought before the House of Commons. The move in essence brings England and Wales inline with Northern Ireland, where HIPs were never introduced and only an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is required to be obtained by property sellers & landlords. The seller will now have to provide an energy performance certificate which ranks the energy efficiency of a home with rating from A to G ratings, within 28 days of putting a home on the market, (different obligations apply in NI).

Hips were introduced in 2007 and were widely seen as a money spinner for government, but since then a whole industry has popped up to satisfy the demand of the legislation and it is now this industry which is threatening to sue the government for loss of income and jobs.

The packs which were paid for by sellers, contain property information such as title deeds, local searches and the EPC, but despite the intent being to fasten up the process, they lead to duplication of work, as purchasers wanted to rely on their own chosen professional doing the work.

Only those directly involved in providing the HIPs appear to have objected to the government's move, in general the policy has been broadly welcomed by the public and property professionals such as Estate Agents, who claimed HIPs were stunting the housing market recovery.

With HIPs well and truly dead in England & Wales, the threat of their introduction in regions such as Northern Ireland, is no more! Hip Hip Hooray!