Hips rollout is complete

Home information packs (Hips) are now a mandatory part of the home-selling process for all properties in England and Wales.

Four months after the packs were initially introduced to properties with four or more bedrooms, a complete rollout has finally been completed.

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) has welcomed the move but is calling for some changes to be made.

"For Hips to fully inform potential buyers about properties they are viewing it is vital that the Home Condition Report (HCR) is made a mandatory part of the pack and that many of the searches which provide information on flooding, ground movement and contamination are included," said Ahipp director general Mike Ockenden.

"By bringing this information back into the pack and certain documents that are required to complete the legal process, Hips can be made exchange ready. This means that a buyer who has an offer accepted can pass the pack to his or her lawyer who can rely on the contents and move quickly to exchange of contracts.

"Exchange ready Hips will remove delays from the process and reduce the number of failed transactions which have been running at over 25 per cent costing consumers £1 million per day," he added.

Hips were due to be introduced to the market in June but had to be postponed due to a lack of qualified energy assessors.

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