Hips will be 'disaster' says pressure group

A group of estate agents, chartered surveyors and solicitors have called on the Government to cancel plans to introduce Home Information Packs (Hips) for people buying and selling houses.

The heads of more than 500 companies have written to Housing Minister Yvette Cooper calling on her to drop plans to introduce Home Information Packs (Hips) in June 2007.
Home Information Packs (Hips) are being introduced to help make the process of buying and selling houses quicker.

In the region of £1,000,000 is wasted each day due to sales falling through when potential buyers have spent hundreds of pounds on solicitors fees, valuations and searches. But the group warned the packs would be detrimental to the consumer, could dislocate the property market and would fail to significantly improve the home buying process.

It estimates the introduction of the packs will lead to a 30% reduction in the number of properties put up for sale each year as sellers are deterred by the £700 to £1,000 cost of assembling them. It also warned this reduction in supply could cause massive house price inflation.

It added that the packs, which will contain a home condition report based on a professional survey of the property, evidence of ownership and local authority searches, will cost people selling their home around £600 million a year in extra costs.

Estate agent Nick Salmon, of Lurot Brand, who leads the group, said: "The Government is about to con the consumer that Home Information Packs (Hips) are a magic cure for the problems incurred in home buying, whereas in fact it will be an expensive disaster for everyone.

"Buyers and sellers will be disappointed and angry to discover that the expensive home information pack (hip) will leave them still facing most of the problems currently inherent in the property buying system including gazumping, gazundering, and chains.

"We would all like to make home buying easier but the Government is deaf to any criticism levelled at home information packs (hips). So now the property industry is coming together to protect the consumer and calls upon the Housing Minister to shelve the implementation."

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has also expressed concerns about the introduction of the packs, warning they could lead to an oversupply of property on sale in the run-up to their introduction, followed by a rapid unwinding of the situation after they came in.