Home Information Pack (aka HIP) clarified
Home Information Pack (HIP) also termed as the ‘Seller’s Pack contains a series of documents that the owner of the property in England and Wales must furnish, before he puts his property in the open market for sale. The Home Information Pack provides all necessary information relating to property and includes documents like local authority searches, an Energy Performance Certificate, title documents, guarantees etc.
The necessity of introducing Home Information Pack (aka HIP) was to verify whether the seller has intentionally raised the price of the property after the offer has been made and to check with a probable intentional delay in the procedure of buying and selling. HIP aims at making the transaction all the more fast and obvious.
Before HIP was introduced and made compulsory the process of domicile buying and selling was full to the brim with imperfections and precariousness. Buyers found it difficult to enter into deals because most of the time, they were not provided with proper information and data and this made it difficult for them to reach to a conclusion about the correct price of the property.
As a result, most property deals ended up unsuccessfully due to lack of required credentials. According to various researches, the loss incurred due to such a faulty property transaction was somewhat around £350 million in a single year.
In relation to the provision of the Housing Act 2004, all property proprietors have to produce HIP documents if they intend to put up an advertisement for a home based property. Thus, there has been a complete transformation in the present situation and now the total number of successful home transactions has increased leaps and bounds.
Now, as all the information are produced, the seller no longer needs to quote for a property. The process has become an open game where nothing remains hidden and the buyer ends up with satisfaction on one hand and a lucrative deal on the other. There remains no scope for rechecks and re-verifications and everything winds up fast retaining a feel of cordiality between the buyer and the seller.
The information included in an HIP comes under two following heads of required and authorized. The Home Information Pack Index, EPCs, Local Authority and Drainage Searches, Sale Statement/Terms of Sale and the title documents for the deal of the property include the essential or mandatory certifications. - Find your local Domestic Energy Assessor (aka DEA) in our directory -
It is necessary for the person who intends to sell his property to submit the necessary documents with all the needful information. However, remember, only those documents, which have been put out just three months prior to the property deal, can only be produced. It is hard for a recently issued document to make its place in the list.
However, in case the property is on a leasehold the proprietor should render some surplus information as building insurance policy, contact details for the property owner/management, copy of the lease, legal details, recent service charge receipts and accounts with all relevant ordinances with the all-important Home Information Pack documents.
Keeping these aside, the owner of the home based property should also come up with other ‘accredited’ details within the documents like the Home Condition Report, Legal Summary & Other Search Reports. If required, two specific sellers’ questionnaire forms like the Home Use Form and Home Contents Form should also be there in the HIP.
