What is a HIP?

A HIP (Home Information Pack) provides information to a prospective buyer of a residential dwelling.

From 6th April 2009 no marketing of a property for sale can take place until all the 'required' information is available. When all the 'required' information has been uploaded into the HIP, officially the HIP will then be at the 'Basic HIP' stage.

The contents of a 'Basic HIP' is:

• Index
• Energy Performance Certificate
• Sale Statement
• Land Registry Title documents and Plan (or SIM result where the title is unregistered)
• Property Information Questionnaire

The pack must contain the remaining required documents within 28 days from point of order to upgrade the 'Basic HIP' to a 'Completed HIP':

• Local Authority Search
• Drainage and Water Search
• Epitome of Title (where the title is unregistered)
• Copy lease (where the title is leasehold)

Home Information Packs (HIPs) have been designed to speed up and improve the home buying process by requiring the seller, to have all the 'required' information about the property available for inspection by the buyer, as soon as the estate agent starts marketing the property.

They also include an energy performance certificate which is intended to make people more aware of the energy performance of their homes and therefore reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change by improving energy efficiency.

Before the introduction of HIPs most of the information was not available until after a sale was agreed. This sometimes led to problems and issues arising later in the conveyancing process when considerable costs had already been incurred. By making all the information and an energy performance certificate available from the outset, a buyer can make an informed decision at the beginning of the sale process therefore avoiding uncertainty, delays, and unnecessary expense later.

Benefits:

1. Only seller's intent on selling put their house on the market.
2. Buyers are more informed which helps in speeding up the buying and selling process.
3. With legal documents 'required' in the HIP helps to speed up transaction times.
4. Awareness of energy efficiency helps tackle climate change.
5. Allows information to be exchanged speedily via the internet.

Disadvantages with the 'Old System':

1. Information was not available until too late in the process.
2. Too much time and money wasted in carrying out duplicated searches and surveys (paid for by the buyer) voluntary schemes failed to improve matters.
3. Transaction period too long and getting worse.
4. Transaction failure rate was too high resulting in unnecessarily high wasted expenditure by buyers and sellers, also wasted marketing and other costs incurred by Estate Agents.
5. An old archaic system largely unchanged since the Law of Property Act 192