Home Information Packs (HIPs) were launched in August 2007 and just under 3 years later have been suspended from 21 May 2010.
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) were part of HIPs. These basically provide a rating of the property’s energy efficiency on a scale of A to G. EPCs are still required and have not been suspended.
In my honest opinion, both HIPS and EPCs were and are a total waste of time. I’ve sold properties in the last couple of years, and the added expense (through the HIP requirement) of selling these properties did not make any difference whatsoever in the sale of my properties.
If you’re interested in further reading, I’ve taken an excerpt here from the www.communities.gov.uk website:
“In an important step at a point of fragile recovery in the housing market, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps today announced that with immediate effect, they are suspending the requirement for homeowners to provide a Home Information Pack (HIP) when selling their homes.
Mr Pickles today laid an Order suspending HIPs with immediate effect, pending primary legislation for a permanent abolition. The Secretary of State has taken this swift action in order to avoid uncertainty and prevent a slump in an already fragile housing market. Today’s announcement sends a clear message of encouragement to people thinking of selling their home that they can put it on the market with less cost and hassle.
HIPs are currently holding back the housing market because sellers are having to fork-out extra cash, sometimes hundreds of pounds, just to be able to put their home up for sale. Suspending HIPs will reduce the cost of selling a home, remove a layer of regulation from the process and provide a welcome help to the housing market during the recovery. It will also mean a saving for consumers to the tune of £870m over ten years, giving sellers more money in their pocket to spend in the wider economy.
Mr Pickles and Mr Shapps also said that the Government is determined to help people reduce their energy bills, improve our energy security and tackle climate change by increasing the energy efficiency of their homes. Sellers will therefore still be required to commission, but won’t need to have received, an EPC before marketing their property, and the Government will consider how the EPC can play its part in the new drive for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy.
Eric Pickles said:
"The expensive and unnecessary Home Information Pack has increased the cost and hassle of selling homes and is stifling a fragile housing market.
"That’s why I am taking emergency action to suspend the HIP, bringing down the cost of selling a home and removing unnecessary regulation from the home buying process.
"This swift and decisive action will send a strong message to the fragile housing market and prevent uncertainty for both home sellers and buyers.
"HIPs are history. This action will encourage sellers back into the market, and help the market as a whole and the economy recover."
Today’s move is part of delivering a key manifesto comment made by both parties in the new coalition Government. It will mean that sellers will no longer be told they have to buy a HIP before putting their home on the market, but they will now have the choice to provide one if they want to.”
