HIPS shambles continues

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is reiterating its concern over home information packs (HIPs) as the industry prepares for tomorrow’s roll out to all properties newly entering the market.

Stewart Lilly, President at the NAEA, comments: “This is a highly clumsy piece of legislation and we remain absolutely convinced that HIPs are not the way to improve the home buying and selling process or to deliver the important energy performance certificates (EPCs).

“Time and time again the industry has advised the government against the Packs. We only hope that at some stage it starts listening. At the moment – EPCs aside – HIPs are just wasting everyone’s time.

“Unfortunately, this shambles is set to cause problems for a while to come. The immediate worry is exactly how the Packs will impact on the market. Following the first two phases of the implementation we’ve already seen a decline in the number of new instructions available. What further damage HIPs will cause remains to be seen.

“Looking forward, we are particularly worried about how the government proposes to deal with the issue of first day marketing from June next year. We are also waiting to hear about how the inclusion of all leasehold information will actually be dealt.

“A complete mess has been made with this legislation. It really would be in everyone’s best interests to scrap HIPs.”