ContractorsHIP's - Home Information Packs

Home Information Packs or HIP's as they are commonly known as, are here to stay sadly. The Government finally announced, after years of speculation, that from the 1 August 2007 all properties put on the market to sell, in England & Wales, with 4 or more bedrooms would require a HIP. This was extended to3 bedroom properties six weeks later and finally to 1 & 2 bedroom properties in mid December 2007. By the end of 2007 all properties put on the market in England and Wales required a HIP.

The government has now announced that with effect from 1 October 2008 an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will be required for all rental properties. The responsibility for providing the EPC’s for prospective tenants, rests with the Landlords.

Scotland initially escaped but as from 1 December 2008 all properties for sale in Scotland will have to be marketed with what will be called a “Home Report”.

Although most of the information included in a HIP is standard stuff which Conveyancers would normally have gathered in the course of finalising the sale, the one big change has been the inclusion of energy performance certificates. The idea of the energy performance certificate is to enable buyers to see the property's energy efficiency - a bit like when you buy a fridge! The Domestic Energy Assessor will collect data and produce the EPC. The report will estimate the current fuel costs for the property and then give measures that could be taken to improve the energy efficiency and how much these improvements would cost. The obvious advantage to sellers is that the more energy efficient the property the better the price they should be able to achieve but the danger is that buyers will use a vendors own HIP as a tool with which to extract a cost reduction by highlighting potential costs to be incurred to improve the homes energy efficiency.

A whole new industry has sprung up to supply packs to vendors and the charges and offers vary hugely. There are providers offering anything from 'free' HIPs to 'cheap' HIPs. However, the new breed of Domestic Energy Assessors, have to be remunerated somehow so taking the time to 'read the small print' and research various options is vitally important.

At FreelancerMoney we recognise that, our clients are busy professionals who will not have the time between meeting the needs of their contract to research the best options available. To this end we have launched ContractorsHIPS to offer our clients a personalised HIP service with the added advantage of our being able to monitor the progress for you and keep you updated at all times.

Any recommendations we make to you are based on your needs and circumstances and we'll reconfirm any advice we make to you in writing.

Please complete the HIP Finder and we will be in touch shortly.