Coalition scraps Hips

The government has said that home sellers will no longer need to provide home information packs.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats pledged in their coalition agreement to get rid of the packs. However, the due to EU law an energy performance certificate will still be required.

Housing minister Grant Shapps said: “Today the new government is ensuring that home information packs are history. This is a great example of how we are determined to get straight down to work and cut pointless red tape which is strangling the market.”

Gillian Charlesworth, director of communications for the RICS, said: “Hips have failed to address the significant problems in the home buying process they were originally supposed to tackle and RICS is pleased that one of the first acts of the new government has been to clearly show their intention to abolish them. Taking a swift decision will have minimised the impact on the market and ensured that estate agents who stick to the rules will not lose out.”

Richard Sexton, business development director of e.surv, a firm of residential surveyors, said - “The demise of HIPs will have implications for the industry that has sprung up to deliver the service and this group of providers could well be considering mounting a legal challenge against their abolition. The alternative to HIPs would have been to move towards a version of the more successful Scottish Home Report, but with competing priorities, it would seem the Government doesn’t feel this to be a huge priority.”

Although on the subject of energy performance certificates being retained, Sexton said it was a “sop” for abolishing HIPs.