Northfields Estates is pleased to report that the Coalition government has officially suspended the use of Home Information Packs (HIPs).

First introduced in 2007 in England and Wales, HIPs were supposed to speed up the house selling process by obliging sellers to provide much of the required conveyancing information when properties were first put up for sale.  Instead many estate agents, solicitors and other property professionals criticised the packs for actually slowing the process down and stifling a market that was already struggling due to the credit crunch.

The packs were paid for by vendors before putting their property on the market.  The packs contained property information, title deeds, an energy performance report and local searches. 

The average Home Information Pack cost around £300, however, some packs were as much as £500.  This upfront cost prevented many would-be house sellers from going ahead and listing their homes due to the up-front cost involved.  We expect that far more sellers will be tempted to test the market, by listing their property for sale and seeing what sort of response they might get.

This week the BBC quoted the new Housing Minister Grant Shapps, "the new government is ensuring that home information packs are history,".

"By suspending home information packs today, it means that home sellers will be able to get on with marketing their home without having to shell out hundreds of pounds upfront.

"We are committed to greener housing so from now on all that will be required will be a simple energy performance certificate," he added.

Although the Coalition government is eager to point out their green credentials, the reason that the new government has not be able to scrap the Energy Performance Report element of HIPs is due to EU regulation which requires that all homes be checked for energy efficiency. 

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) will need to be commissioned before marketing a property for sale but happily sellers will no longer need to have received the finished certificate in advance.  To find out what Energy Performance Certificates mean and how to read them, click here.

Not only will the cost of selling your home be reduced with the suspension of HIPs, but the bureaucracy and inconvenience will also be reduced. 

If you have been thinking about listing your house for sale, now you can list your property without the need for paying the upfront cost of a Home Information Pack.  Call now to request your free valuation on 0208 840 6666 or request your valuation online by clicking here.

To check out what properties are available for sale click here.