I see Home information packs or HIPs are now needed on  3 bedroom properties, unless you call your “3 bedroom home a 3 room home.”

So repeat after me, “my 3 bedroom is now a 3 room home”, and i will not pay for HIPS.

• As reported on BBC news – Estate agents are also back dating the sale instruction to avoid the HIPs pack, So with 3 bedroom homes from September, you gave the sale instruction in August didn’t you.

HIPs pack providers will tell you such nonsense such as, you will lose out on people looking online for a home. If you market your 4 bedroom or 3 bedroom home, as 4 rooms and 3 rooms upstairs…

Well listen up  as reportEd on BBC NEWS “estate agents have admitted they don’t give a damn about online home sales” as more sales are carried out in the estate agencies themselves.

There be HIPs free and EPC free unless you want some idiot clumping around your home, and we are not talking estate agents.

home information packs

It would appear the below named idiots are serving notice on the government.
They the government must be laughing there socks off.

For homeowners do you really want to let these idiots loose in your home…

Statement from IHI Chairman

It is not without considerable debate that the Institute of Home Inspection Council has unanimously voted to serve a Notice of Intent upon the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government regarding the lack of commitment and consultation given to DEAs and HIs in delivering its HIPs programme.

This is their Mission Statement.

The Institute of Home Inspection is formed to protect, enhance and further develop the technology, profession and practice of home and energy inspection and the advancement of education in the said professions and practice for the ultimate benefit of the public in general.

News Flash.

 Domestic energy assessor arrested in Manchester after stealing wallet from home..

 More to follow

We did warn you that Energy assessors were not to be trusted.

The home information pack, offers no value to home sellers, and home buyers receive nothing of any use in the pack itself.

1. The pack costs around £700 which is then added to the price of the home.
2. Local searches in the pack are mostly not acceptable to the buyers lenders, and will be rather lacking in detail.
3. Then we come to the energy certificate “well buyer beware”

Quite frankly home buyers will save £700 by buying a home without a HIP in place.

Home sellers can legally avoid HIPs and those ridiculous Energy performace certificates, by calling bedrooms -Rooms.

So a 4 bedroom home becomes a “4 ROOM HOME”

This applies on all property sizes.

The House of Lords has made another stand against the implementation of Home Information Packs, with 186 votes against 160 in favour of scrapping the scheme.

Yesterday’s vote in the Lords saw Baroness Hanham urging the House to revoke Hips. She said: “Seldom can a government initiative have gone so spectacularly wrong.

It has been panned by practically all the professional bodies associated with house sales. Despite warnings from this House and the other place on innumerable occasions that the policy was simply not going to work, the Government have, none the less, ploughed on.

Hanham added: “This is the Minister’s opportunity finally to admit that the policy is badly flawed, should be withdrawn and either rethought or abandoned.

We will gladly support the introduction of energy performance certificates as a separate and freshly considered initiative, but home packs must go. I urge the Minister to do everyone a favour—buyers, sellers and professionals—and abandon the packs this afternoon

After we disclosed that the Energy performance certificate was open to abuse, it now turns out that the EPC will do nothing to improve the energy efficiency of homes, as the Government pays lip service to Eu regulations. See this post on EPC concerns

 After much Hot air  and CO2 on the subject from the Pro Epc campaigners, the fact is this piece of paper is not worth the cost of producing it.

To prove a point consider this, you want to buy a home and you see in the report that the Home is given a D energy rating about 65% efficient.

The report recommends that fitting double glazing cavity wall insulation and extra insulation in the loft space and fit a new condensing boiler. would give the Home say a B rating. 80% efficient

However the homeowner to achieve this would have to spend around £6500, which they are unlikely to spend, as the pay back would take around 80 years….

 Now the CRUX of the matter, if you the home buyer, do not want to spend £6500 to upgrade the home, then the CO2 rating stays the same.

THERE WILL BE NO REDUCTION IN CO2 LEVELS..

So at the end of the day the EPC, will do nothing to reduce carbon emissions from your home or the one you want to buy.

If you then look as social landlords who need an epc once every 10 years from 2008, they are highly unlikely to upgrade their homes either, so the situation gets worse.

Now the CO2 cost of producing the Epc, is going to be more than any Co2 emissions saved. All rather pointless really

.

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Avoid the Home information pack legally, and save £700

Trading standards can do nothing, and your estate agent can market your home HIPs free. Of course the PRO HIPs crowd will avoid the legal facts of the matter.  HIPs deception

Ruth Kelly MP “there is no legal definition of what constitutes a four bedroom house…”.

Since Ruth Kelly the Minister then in charge of HIPs has admitted there is no legal definition.

Here is the relevant part of the HIPs regulations [based on bedrooms], that applies on August 1st.

Application of part 5 of the housing act 2004 to residential properties of 4 bedrooms or more.

a) Is physically complete at first point of marketing

b) has four bedrooms or more

Keeping that in mind. here is a legal fact that makes HIps avoidable…

————> “Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”

Therefore call your bedrooms, rooms you are HIPs and EPC free on all homes, 1 bed, 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bedroom and larger properties. <————–

Now we have that out of the way, lets see what you get if you have £700 to throw away on what is just another housing tax.

HIPs has a serious flaw the local searches that are supposed to save buyers money are in fact flawed.

The searches in a HIPs pack will not be the Actual local authority searches and any home buyer will have to pay again to get them…..

The energy performance certificate is open to abuse, with no checks on the standard being applied. Therefore any home can have any rating.

The required documents are: with word and pdf examples.

1. Home information index Basically a list of the packs content.
2. Energy Performance Certificate.
3. Sale statement Sale statement.doc
4. Evidence of Land registry title example.
5. Local and drainage-&-water searches. – A drainage and water search can be requested from your water supplier.
6. Additional information for leasehold and commonhold sales, where appropriate.

You can also include a Home contents document in the pack, to layout what is included in the home sale and whats not. eg Are you leaving the Carpets light fittings ect

If you want a pack you can do it your self, personally i would rather avoid it. Why pay for something if you don’t have to.

_______________________________________

With Ruth Kelly admitting that there is no legal definition of a bedroom, and MP Stewart Jackson  quoting

“Just moving a bed out of one of your bedrooms will avoid the need for family homes to pay for these expensive and unwanted packs.

As we have advised: There is no legal definition of a bedroom or a 4 bedroom home or a 3 bedroom home…There is no need to comply with HIPs legislation fact not fiction.

Here is the actual HIPs legislation: see Trading standards on HIPs

Application of part 5 of the housing act 2004 to residential properties of 4 bedrooms or more.

a) Is physically complete at first point of marketing

b) has four bedrooms or more

The pro hips crowd quote this interpretation of the Statutory Instrument 2007 No. 1668 (C.66) : This is not legally binding…

“a residential property shall be regarded as having or expected to have four bedrooms or more if the manner in which the property is marketed indicates that it has or is expected to have four bedrooms or more:”

Superb piece of legislation, since Homes have rooms not bedrooms.

“Ruth Kelly “there is no legal definition of what constitutes a four bedroom house…”.

______________________________________________

 “Ruth Kelly “there is no legal definition of what constitutes a four bedroom house…”. From the horses mouth so to speak. 

Here is your legal guide to utilizing the HIPs  bedroom loophole. This will make you HIPs and sellers pack free on any size of home, 4 bedroom plus, 3 bedrooms, 2 bedrooms and 1 bedroom homes. Plus save £700 in the process…

How can this be, you may ask.

Simple really the government decided to introduce HIPs based on the number of Bedrooms. 

Legally however  there is no definition of a bedroom, a home only has rooms.

Therefore calling your 4 bedroom home, a 4 room home makes you legally HIPs free.

Here  is the Legal fact. With no legal definition of a bedroom as David Marsden, the head of the property department at law firm Matthew Arnold and Baldwin, pointed out.

He said: “Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”

Therefore call your bedrooms, rooms you are HIPs and EPC free on all homes,  1 bed, 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bedrooms and larger properties.

Furthermore have a read of this post to confirm, that trading standards have no powers to intervene, so a 4 bedroom home becomes 4 rooms, 3 bedroom home becomes 3 rooms and so on… Trading standards HIPs
_________________________________________________
hips loophole

The Despised Hips pack, is forcing HIPs providers to stoop even lower to garner business from Estate agents by dumping their prices.

But the fact remains these cheap  packs will not have the correct local authority searches, making you the seller liable for the extra fees payable by the buyer to get the correct information.

The ruling is always “caveat emptor” buyer beware so no purchaser will rely on anything commissioned by the seller, without doing their own investigations so what is the point of a HIP or the EPC?

HIP providers LMS announced that it will be offering estate agents the chance to buy Home Information Packs (HIPs) for only £99 the end of July.

There is no need to get a HIPs pack.

“Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”

Therefore call your bedrooms, rooms you are HIPs and EPC free on all homes, 1 bed, 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bedrooms and larger properties.

Be HIPs pack free and save £700…

LMS say the deal is available to all homes up to a value of £500,000, this deal offers HIPs at just a third of the price they will be sold at from 1 August 2007, when the packs become mandatory for all homes with four or more bedrooms coming onto the market.

Dominic Toller, director of new business and marketing at LMS, commented: “This is a fantastic opportunity for agents to offer discounts of £200 on every Home Information Pack they commission.

[yeah right the hips pack will stay the same £700, and agents will pocket the difference....]

 Agents could be targeting potential new customers with this amazing deal to help secure their business.”

_____________________________________

With estate agents predicting that Hips will be delayed yet again, HIPs pack providers are getting  desperate for you to buy one of there expensive £700 packs.

But before you do, consider that buyers will not  be too happy…

Why should buyers trust a HIPs pack that will cost them at least £150 to get the correct local searches.

The ruling is always “caveat emptor” buyer beware, so no purchaser will rely on anything commissioned by the seller, without doing their own investigations so what is the point of a HIP or the EPC?

Take this nonsense from tick every box [who promote hips],  apparently they can see in to the future…

If buyers come to expect a HIP and it isn’t there, which home are they likely to view first? 

Nine times out of ten they will take a HIP home.  Firstly it shows that the vendor is keen to provide all the relevant information. 

Secondly it could mean that the buyer could potentially save a few quid on searches.

[there's that word could again, could save not will save.]

There is no need to get a HIPs pack.

“Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”

Therefore call your bedrooms, rooms you are HIPs and EPC free on all homes, 1 bed, 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bedrooms and larger properties.
___________________________________________

Selling your 4 bedroom home as 3 bedroom plus study to avoid HIPs, does not make it a 3 bedroom home.

Have you noticed these rambling Pro HIPs sites always confuse 3 bedrooms plus study with 3 bedroom homes. They also have a fascination with the word could, as in “they could be devaluing there home”, not they will be devaluing there home.

Here is the PRO hips battle cry “you could be devaluing your house by £121,000 (based on the difference between the national average house price for a three and four bedroom house) “

It is convenient for them to avoid telling you that, 3 bedroom plus study is not a 3 bedroom home, because they want you spend £700 on a HIPs pack.

Furthermore if you want to avoid HIPs across all home sizes then you can quite legally call your bedrooms rooms.

With no legal definition of a bedroom as David Marsden, the head of the property department at law firm Matthew Arnold and Baldwin, pointed out.

He said: “Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”

So a 4 bedroom home, becomes 4 rooms upstairs plus bathroom.. 

The home sellers packs will cost the home selling public, an extra 1 million per day on the 600,000 aborted home sales every year. 

With a home information pack required as soon as you market your home, if your house sale collapses then you have spent £700 for nothing.

Some of the reasons for the 600,000 aborted homes sales include, change of mind by buyers, loss of job or  buyers not being able to get a mortgage..

If you want avoid the cost of being one of the 600000 home sales aborted, then see this:

“Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”

Therefore call your bedrooms, rooms you are HIPs and EPC free on all homes, 1 bed, 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bedroom and larger properties.

Lord Hanningfield:

I wish to make two points, particularly in response to the noble Lord, Lord Graham. He referred twice to the £1 million a day wasted on home transactions. We all agree with that.

He and others do not seem to understand that home information packs will not save money but are likely to add yet another £1 million to the costs of selling homes.

We estimate that some 600,000 sales are aborted each year, and that will not be prevented by home information packs.

If the packs cost around £600 a piece, that represents around an additional £390 million on the cost of selling houses, an extra £1 million a day.

Anyone who claims that they will save £1 million a day is talking rubbish

The energy performance certificate is only needed before exchange of contracts, a CLG spokesperson stated, under new proposals currently being discussed. That is unless you avoid them altogether..

Do not get an EPC till exchange of contracts, that way you will save the expense if your home does not sell, and 600,000 homes fail to sell every year.

It was obvious the EPC made no commercial or environmental sense at all. There are 21 million homes in the UK  and the the EPC is only required at exchange of contract on the 1.5 million homes sold each year.

This meant a huge number of homes, would never be forced to have the energy certificate.

Funds would be better spent on home insulation initiatives. 

Data from the HIPs trials, has shown the EPC had virtually no impact, with home owners not upgrading their level of insulation. 

Landlords as an instance, need an  Energy certificate every 10 years, yet they are unlikely to improve there homes insulation rating.

There will be thousands of rented homes with an EPC, still pumping out carbon emissions at the same level. Nothing will change.

As Baroness Deech stated in the Lords, some people do not sell their family home for 20, 30 or 40 years, in which case there will be no energy inducement; there will be no need to get a certificate and no need to think about energy improvements.

 Tacking on the energy certificate to a house sale does not make sense.

The ruling is always “caveat emptor” buyer beware so no purchaser will rely on anything commissioned by the seller, without doing their own investigations so what is the point of a HIP or the EPC?

More to follow..

There was an error made in reporting saying HIPs were optional, this has been corrected, My apologies.

We are getting reports that debt collectors,  are setting up as home information pack providers,  and existing  Hips pack providers are being approached to pass details on to there clients. When the Home information packs latest launch date starts.

The hips home seller pack  gives the name(’s) and address of the sellers of the property, backed up by the land registry documentation. Initially, HIPs and EPCs will only be required for homes with four or more bedrooms.

With just over 1.5 million homes sold each year this is just another source of private information for them.

This from one hips provider.

The provision of a Home Information Pack,  specifically requires disclosure of your personal details to third parties including:-

Home Inspector or Domestic Energy assessor for the purposes of carrying out a Home Condition report and/or Energy Performance Certificate.

Personal Search Agent for the purposes or obtaining Local Authority enquiries.

If ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction to provide any of your personal information collected by xxxxxxx as described in this Privacy Policy, you consent to xxxxx providing such personal information to that court in accordance with the court’s instructions.

Which is just another reason to avoid the HIPs pack as they further invade our privacy, even LACORS has no faith in HIPs regulations.

Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services.

Although LACORS can appreciate the philosophy behind the proposals for HIPs, without amending legislation such as the Law of Property Act 1925, LACORS does not perceive how HIPs will make the home-buying process easier and more transparent.

We do not believe that the introduction of HIPs will prevent the process from remaining fragmented as it will always consist of a chain of buying/selling transactions requiring a number of parties working in conjunction to complete transactions successfully.

There are rumours that the Hips sellers pack may be brought in for 3 bedroom homes from 1 st August.

 If that is the case, then your home now becomes 3 rooms upstairs plus bathroom.

 NO hips, no fuss, no £700, simple really.

After all with no legal definition of a bedroom, there is no legal requirement.

The official Government impact assessment, which was slipped out this week, says tens of thousands of potential sellers will be put off by the £700 cost of the packs, due to be launched on August 1

Which will cause at least a 10% drop in homes put up for sale….

So lets get the facts out of the way.

Selling your 3 bedroom home, as 3 rooms upstairs is perfectly legal
selling your 4 bedroom home, as 4 rooms rooms upstairs plus en suite, bathroom ect is perfectly legal.

There will be no drop in property price, you will be HIPs free.

Now ministers are looking at possibly extending the packs to three-bedroom homes, potentially affect hundreds of thousands of sellers across the country. See post on legal definition, how to avoid Hips

A Communities Department spokesman said, ‘We have set out the criteria for rolling out to other sized properties which will happen once sufficient energy inspectors are in place nationally and regionally to meet market demand, taking into account lessons learned from the operation of Hips.’

Housing stock surged in May.

Nationally, the number of properties per agent leapt 16.1% from 62 in April to 72. This is considerably higher than figures seen at the same time last year, when the average number of properties per agent was 66.

It is in fact the highest figure recorded by the NAEA survey since December 2005. The increase is likely to be the result of a desire by homeowners to avoid the anticipated HIPs legislation, originally due to launch on 1 June.

The latest numbers indicate the aversion of house sellers to the legislation and the lengths they are willing to go to avoid them. See also 4 bedroom HIPs free.

HIPs effect likely to continue. See Hips property slump

NAEA president, Stewart Lilly, commented: “As predicted there was a huge surge of properties being placed onto the market in May by sellers who were keen to dodge the HIPs legislation. Even with the announced delay, agents still found that properties were being placed on their books at a fast pace. I feel that this will still be the case throughout June and may continue into July .

“I am alarmed that month after month the percentage of first-time buyers in the market is dropping and we are now faced with the worrying figure of just 8.9% of first-time buyers in the marketplace.

I continue to urge the government to start making more allowances for this struggling sector and would like to see more initiatives put in place so this figure does not continue to drop.”

property

Do 4 bedroom and larger homes need a hips home information or home sellers pack after August 1st? Well depending how you market it, the legal answer is no you do not, and here are the facts.

But just as important, please see this information from the Government, on the property slump HIPs is going to cause.

So to set the record straight, it was asked in parliament:-

Whether a home information pack will be required from 1 August when marketing a property described as having on the ground floor: a kitchen, a cloakroom and two reception rooms; and upstairs: three bedrooms, a family bathroom, a study and a large playroom, and used for these purposes.

The reply from (Under-Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government) was:

From 1 August, owners of properties with four or more bedrooms will be required to compile a home information pack if they market their property for sale as a 4 bedroom property. 

A home marketed as 4 rooms upstairs plue ensuite and bathroom, does not need a home information pack.

So there you have it HIPs is not required after August 1st 2007, if you quite legally market your 4 bedroom and larger property, as 4 rooms plus bathroom and ensuite ect.

This 4 bedroom home sold for the asking price and not a mention of bedrooms.

Home for sale

Living room dining room, reception cloaks, fitted kitchen, all the usual things except when it came to up stairs.

This home has en-suite plus bathroom and 4 rooms.

 He received 12 calls and  the house was sold for the asking price of £275000.

The full legal definition, just to make sure

David Marsden, the head of the property department at law firm Matthew Arnold and Baldwin, said that there was no official definition of a bedroom.

He said: “We will start seeing three-bedroom houses advertised with a dining room on the first floor and an upstairs lounge – and ‘oh dear, we just seem to be storing a bed in there’.

He said that there would be no comeback under the Property Misdescriptions Act if a four-bedroom house is described as having three bedrooms and a study”

Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”.

4 bedroom homes hips free

 HOME information packs will lead to a slump in the number of properties being put on sale, warns the Government’s own study into the controversial initiative.

The official impact assessment, which was slipped out this week, says tens of thousands of potential sellers will be put off by the £700 cost of the packs, due to be launched on August 1.

The study predicts the number of homes on sale will fall by at least 10 per cent.

Tory Shadow housing minister Michael Gove last night called on the Government to abandon the plans, which have already been watered down and delayed in the face of massive opposition.

Mr Gove said: “This explosive Government document reveals that Labour ministers have been warned about the potentially damaging effect home information packs will have on sellers and the housing market.

See our post Ruth Kelly on Hips She forgot to mention the above..
 

The impact assessment also predicts that many owners, who may have listed their homes to test the market will no longer bother.

Ministers insist this will not lead to a fall in the total number of homes sold because, some people who are testing the market are not serious about selling…..

Peter Bolton King, chief executive at the National Association of Estate Agents does not mince his words:

‘The chaotic situation surrounding HIPs appears to be getting worse.’

We have been saying for years that home packs will reduce the number of listings, only for ministers to say we were talking rubbish. Now they have had to admit it.

His solution:

‘We urge the government to separate the energy performance certificate (EPC) from the rest of the HIP to allow for its rapid introduction, and then to scrap the remainder of the pack.’

With the EPC available for just £45, as opposed to the HIPs pack at around £700 inc vat.

Hips property slump

Legally avoid HIPs home sellers pack and the EPC.

Here is our legal guide to avoiding the home sellers pack HIPs or Home information pack.

With no legal definition of a bedroom as David Marsden, the head of the property department at law firm Matthew Arnold and Baldwin, pointed out.

He said: “Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not.”

Therefore call your bedrooms, rooms you are HIPs and EPC free on all homes,  1 bed, 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bedrooms and larger properties.

Consider this, if estate agents can avoid the HIPs legislation, by using the format below, so can you.

If you place an ad in the local paper to sell your home, use this format and save the cost of the HIP and the EPC and the 2% [plus vat] estate agents fees. Cost to you around £60.

Spacious family home, large gardens & double garage

2 reception plus kitchen and utility room

4 rooms upstairs plus en suite and bathroom.

Boarded atic with ladder

£350000 freehold

Here are some comments on the Sellers pack and the EPC to help you decide to avoid it.

Baroness Deech some people do not sell their family home for 20, 30 or 40 years, in which case there will be no energy inducement; there will be no need to get an Energy performance certificate and no need to think about energy improvements.

Tacking on the energy certificate to house sale does not make sense. see post on HIPs and energy-performance concerns/

Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services.

We do not believe that the introduction of HIPs will prevent the process from remaining fragmented as it will always consist of a chain of buying/selling transactions requiring a number of parties working in conjunction to complete transactions successfully.

Yvette Cooper (Minister of State (Housing and Planning), Department for Communities and Local Government) | Hansard source

We set out details in the home information packs regulations and commencement order which were published on 11 June 2007.

Answer.. Home Information Packs will be implemented on a phased basis starting on 1 August 2007, from which date owners of properties with 4 or more bedrooms will need to produce a HIP.

So there you have it market your home as Property with 4 or more rooms upstairs, you are then quite legally HIPS and energy performance report EPC free.

From the Energy assessors forum, Quote.

“I have just looked up in a couple of the big property websites in Bristol and Bath, and it lists hundreds and hundreds, certainly well over 600 for sales in this area alone, in Avon its more like over a thousand.
With 4 Bed I think we should all charge a premium, in fact we could act like surveyors and charge a blood fortunelegally avoid hips
home sellers pack

Huge numbers  of properties coming on the market to beat having to pay for Hips and the Energy performance certificate, Saving homeowners around £700. 

According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The number of new properties coming onto on the market increased at the fastest pace in the survey’s history.

Surveyors reported that this hike was caused by sellers rushing to put their property onto the market before the introduction of the now delayed Home Information Packs (HIPs) in order to avoid fees associated with the packs.

RICS spokesman, Jeremy Leaf, said: “Conditions in the market have loosened as sellers sought to avoid the upfront costs of the recently delayed HIP. However, the surge in supply will be short lived.”

Last month, only days before HIPs were to become compulsory, the Government announced that the introduction of the scheme would be delayed from June 1 to August 1 and restricted to four-bedroom houses.

Plans to include a compulsory, more comprehensive Home Condition Report (HCR) were scrapped last year after complaints that buyers would not trust it and mortgage lenders would not take it into account.

Earlier this week Ruth Kelly met representatives of the Home Information Pack industry, which warned the Communities Secretary that she faces a multi-billion claim if she scraps the scheme.

If you have 5 minutes listen, to this rambling farcical pod cast Domestic energy assessors discussing a forthcoming meeting with Ruth Kelly

hips rush

Latest HIPs loophole

In the latest nationwide production of the the hit comedy the HIPs farce, the Royal institute of chartered surveyors, have come up with a sure fire winner.

RICS claims that under the new DCLG rules sellers need only prove they have ordered a Hip at the point of sale. The regulations do not say that a completed Hip must be acquired, potentially saving sellers from having to pay for a pack, RICS said.

Mr Pryor of PrimeMove.com , “There is no central record in place to show whether sellers have or have not applied for their HIP.

Only the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) will be mandatory by exchange of contracts. Depending on how you market your home.

It branded the packs a “farce” and said the scheme is “fundamentally redundant.”

“Ruth Kelly admitted she had no legal definition of what constitutes a four bedroom house, for instance if a bedroom is being used as a study”.

Which is what we have being saying all along….

hips loophole

Is The Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP – Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Minister for Women behind HIPs? There are times when you wonder,  if the things politicians say are not what they mean.

 In a statement to the house, “HIPs and EPCs to start on August 1, implemented on a phased basis. From August 1 packs – including energy performance certificates – will be required for the sale of four bedroom properties and larger.

Ruth Kelly admitted she had no legal definition of what constitutes a four bedroom house, for instance if a bedroom is being used as a study”.

She then goes on to say, “These are the properties which are the most energy inefficient. We will phase in packs for smaller properties as sufficient energy assessors become ready to start work.”

So here we have a minister, promoting HIPs in one hand, and then going on to give you the home seller the option not to bother, and save yourself £600 to £700. See post Legally avoid HIPs

ruth kelly DIY hips pack