Rics urges Hips postponement
February 22, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has called for the introduction of home information packs (Hips) to be postponed.
The information packs, due to launch in 100 days, will give future buyers information estate agents might not see fit to disclose at the point of sale, such as local searches, sales statements and leasehold documentation as well as an energy performance certificate revealing their future home’s level of energy efficiency.
They are intended to encourage greater transparency in the selling process and slash the high number of sales which fall through each year.
Under current government plans, the information packs will become mandatory from June.
But Rics spokesman Jeremy Leaf insists comprehensive reform measures are needed to “sweep up all the problems with home buying and selling”, not just stop-gap solutions.
More seriously, Hips in their current form are irredeemably “depleted”, with “most of the stuffing removed”, he claims.
Meanwhile, the director general of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP) Mike Ockenden has staunchly defended the information packs, arguing that they would “greatly reduce the needless stress associated with buying and selling homes in this country”.
