Home Information Packs
The Government has announced that Home Information Packs (HIPs) and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) have been rolled out to all properties from 14th December 2007.

Following the introduction of the packs for homes with four bedrooms and above on 1 August 2007, the Government has today (17 August 2007) confirmed there will be enough energy assessors, nationally and regionally, to roll out to three bedroom homes next month, having taken into account the operation of HIPs in the market.

HIPs and EPCs will give house buyers energy ratings for homes for the first time, from A to G - similar to consumer friendly ratings for fridges, helping to lower fuel bills and reduce carbon emissions. The packs will also help to cut costs for consumers by increasing transparency and competition in the home buying and selling process.

Sellers of four bedroom properties and larger from the 1 August 2007 and three bedroom properties from 10 September 2007 should have a ready-prepared HIP available to buyers when marketing their home for sale. The pack will provide buyers with important information early on, giving them a transparent picture of any issues they need to be aware of before making an offer. Currently most of the important information only emerges after an offer's been made, during conveyancing. Issues that crop up at this stage may result in a buyer pulling out of a sale, which means wasted money on searches and legal fees.

In fact, Home Information Packs aren't radically different to some of the components of the current conveyancing process, it's just that the seller (or to use the technical term, vendor) will now have to put this information together before the property goes on the market, rather than the buyer's solicitor sorting it out later on in the process. The only new thing is the introduction of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

A HIP will consist of:

• A HIP Index (essentially a contents list of what's in the HIP)
• An Energy Performance Certificate or EPC (a software-based calculation of the approximate energy costs for running the property, together with an indexed value of the property's current energy efficiency and its potential energy efficiency after the relevant energy efficiency measures have been put in place.)
• A Sale Statement (this gives the basic details of the property, such as name and address of owner, address of the property being sold and tenure, e.g. freehold or leasehold)
• Evidence of title (usually the basic Land Registry registers and title plan)
• Local and Drainage Searches (or a record of the fact that they have been ordered)

Homes can be marketed as soon as the HIP and its contents have been ordered – you don't have to wait until the pack is delivered in order to get your home on the market.

The best person to ask to provide you with your HIP is US, your Solicitor, who no doubt acted for you when you bought your home and already has the majority of the information on file. We can provide you with your HIP pack which can be used to market your home with ANY estate agent and thereby alleviating the need of using one estate agent and having the problem of moving your HIP when you change estate agent.

Remember, estate agents will make a fortune out of HIPs – so make sure that you get a good deal. In the estate agency trade press, there are hundreds of articles about how estate agents can profit out of the implementation of HIPs, so don't feel guilty about making sure you get the best value for money, by talking to US.

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