Hips may be universal by October
June 28, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) is calling on the government to extend the introduction of Home Information Packs (Hips).
Officials at the organisation say that Hips could be applied to homes with three bedrooms or more from September and the rest of the market could follow just one month later.
The government was forced to announce that Hips would only be introduced to the home-selling process for properties with four bedrooms or more from August 1st after concerns about there being too few accredited energy assessors available.
However, Ahipp says that there are plenty of accredited energy assessors available now and even more on their way.
“According to our own research, in addition to the 1,340 accredited assessors, there are a further 1,200 assessors who have applied for accreditation and will be fully accredited by the end of July,” said Paul Broadhead, deputy director general at Ahipp.
“With this in mind, government will easily meet the 2,000 target that it suggests is needed to provide Hips for homes with three bedrooms or more.
“As a result, I see no reason why, in line with its implementation plan, government could not introduce mandatory Hips for three bedroom properties from September, with the rest of the housing stock soon to follow, perhaps as soon as October,” he added.
Mr Broadhead went on to say that he fully expected Hips to be mandatory in the home-selling process for all properties before the end of the year.
