Sir, The Government announced last week a consultation until the end of September on its proposal to include extra details in home information packs (Hips) in the same week when the Law Society said that many sellers were ignoring the requirement to provide the packs. In view of the present parlous state of the residential property market many of the HIPS prepared in 2007 and earlier this year now contain information including searches which are out-of date and would not be relied on by a conveyancer.

Hips were originally suggested by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister shortly after Labour came to power in 1997 as a way of cutting down on gazumping and speeding up the conveyancing process. They have failed to do either and sellers have reported that they mainly appear to be ignored by purchasers and have no effect on whether or not a sale proceeds to exchange of contracts. The preparation of a Hip imposes an unnecessary considerable financial burden on most home sellers, who have to provide a pack to any number of persons who come to view the property and, in the current market, pay again to keep it updated if the property is unsold after several months. In theory a buyer should only make an offer “subject to contract” after he has received the advice of his conveyancer and surveyor on the information in the pack and until contracts are exchanged the seller is still at liberty to accept a higher offer and so gazump any previous offers. In many cases a buyer may still be unable to exchange contracts if he has not sold his own property or is waiting for a mortgage offer on the property he wishes to buy.

I have spent most of my 44 years in practice dealing mainly with residential and commercial conveyancing. I fail to see how Hips have speeded up the conveyancing procedure or prevented gazumping. If a seller informs his conveyancer at the same time as the house is put on the market for sale the conveyancer can prepare the contract and other information and send all the information required in a Hip to the buyer’s conveyancer as soon as a firm offer is made. The seller’s conveyancer could arrange to obtain the energy performance certificate (EPC) and include that in the information. Neither I, nor my professsional colleagues and the surveyors and estate agents to whom I have spoken have experience of the contents of an EPC influencing a buyer on whether or not to make an offer for a property.

Sir Bryan Carlsberg’s recently published independent review of the residential property sector concluded that Hips have not helped the market and suggested that they should be made voluntary. I would go farther and call on the Government to revoke the Hips legislation and regulations.

David Seligman
Cardiff

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