A viewpoint on HIPS...
Well that was pretty quick wasn’t it? No messing from the new coalition, just wham! Away with red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy with the abolition of HIPs.
While HIPs’ demise had been on the cards for quite a while, the speed and lack of notice on the announcement has come as a bit of a surprise.
But is it a good thing? After all HIPs were supposedly providing house buyers with important information and were originally introduced in December 2007 to reduce risk, delay and uncertainty to the house buying process.
As I lurch towards becoming a grumpy old man my natural inclination is to disagree with the masses, but on this one they’re absolutely right. HIPs definitely had to go and well done the new coalition for dispensing with them.
As RICS Director of communications (and our client) Gillian Charlesworth said: “HIPs have failed to address the significant problems in the home buying process they were originally supposed to tackle…taking a swift decision will have minimised the impact on the market and ensured that estate agents who stick to the rules will not lose out.”
Timing was everything and introducing a significant £500 cost to the house buying process just when the property market was teetering over a big price correction was never sensible.
What was better timing though was introducing Energy Performance Certificates and it’s good news that this element has been retained. Here the onus will remain on the estate agent to ensure an EPC has been ordered prior to marketing and that they have made reasonable efforts to ensure it’s available within 28 days of the property coming to market.
So good news all round? Well, apart from the many people who paid for expensive training to become an inspector. If I was one of them I’d seriously be considering what legal action I could take against either the new government for scrapping them or the old for introducing them. But then again, with the curtailing of legal aid that might be difficult too!
Derek Harris, Account Director, Golley Slater London
May 21st, 2010
