Controversial HIPs not helping buyers (From Lancaster And Morecambe Citizen)

Controversial HIPs not helping buyers

11:10am Wednesday 29th April 2009

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CONTROVERSIAL Home Information Packs should be adapted rather than scrapped, according to a new survey.

This week’s Land Data Great Housing Market Debate asked property industry professionals whether Home Information Packs should be adapted or scrapped.

Two thirds of the respondents agreed that the Packs should be adapted rather than abolished, a sentiment that was supported by Monetary Policy Committee member Kate Barker and Michael Coogan, director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

However, some Bolton estate agents disagree.

Philip Courtney-Clegg, from Courtney’s Independent, says that the packs are useful for the Energy Performance Certificates they contain.

However he said: “I cannot see how the current Home Information Packs could be adapted to help a purchaser or vendor unless the surveys attached to it are accepted by the lender.”

Mortgage lenders are currently unwilling to accept the surveys carried out for HIPs, meaning buyers must pay for a second survey.

Claire Greenwood, from Greenwood James estate agent in Bolton, believes that HIPs could be useful if they contained more information.

She says: “I think they should be adapted — the problem is that so few buyers ask to see them. There’s not enough information in them and they’re not fit for the purpose.

“I’d like to see a home condition report which is acceptable to mortgage lenders.

“They don’t need to be scrapped but at this moment they’re not ideal and don’t help buyers.”

The Conservatives, who recently recruited TV’s Kirsty Allsop as a special adviser, have said that HIPs have been “discredited” and that they would be abolished should the Tories come to power.

They claim there is growing evidence that the packs are having a negative impact on the housing market, compounding the impact of the economic downturn.

Mike Ockenden, director general of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers, said: “While I do not deny that further amendments may need to take place before the HIP reaches its full potential, what this week’s vote suggests, and what the Tory party should now recognise, is that there is an appetite within the industry to now work together to improve the current offering.

“HIPs aren’t perfect, but scrapping them entirely would set us back years — instead, let’s work with what we have to make improvements and advance the HIP for the advantage of all involved.”

Home Information Packs were introduced in 2007 to help speed the buying process, but there have been numerous calls for them to be scrapped.

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