Speed up your sales to avoid hassle from home reports

10:30am Friday 5th January 2007

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Roll up! Roll up! Estate agents around Britain are urging buyers and sellers to get cracking and agree deals early in 2007 to avoid more bureaucracy in the shape of Home Information Packs (HIPs) which hit the housing market by law on June 1.

Although HIPs Mark One won't contain the highly controversial Home Condition Reports (HCRs) which threatened to cost some vendors more than £1,000 before the Government backed down on the proposal, they will include an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) compiled by a qualified inspector and adding about £250 to the cost of selling an average home.

HIPs will also contain completed local authority searches, and legal documents necessary to get sales under way when a deal is agreed.

The "dry run" intended to test HIPs started in six locations - Bath, Cambridge, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Northampton and Southampton - in November, with HCRs and EPCs available free for sellers who want them.

Between January 29 and March 5, another dozen areas of the country will be added to the dry run.

In the first six areas, says the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP), nearly 300 HIPs have so far been provided, many including an HCR.

More than 85 agents in the first six areas are signed up to promote the scheme, and an AHIPP spokesman claims "a hugely positive response from consumers and industry alike".

AHIPP deputy director general Paul Broadhead says: "The early roll out has been hugely successful. We have been overwhelmed with enquiries from local businesses not wanting to miss out."

Meanwhile, the new production line of Home Inspectors turned out 70 "graduates" in its first month - while "more than 150" reports were compiled for vendors.

However, the fear is that when the scheme goes compulsory on June 1, inspectors could be overwhelmed by demand from owners keen to get homes on sale as soon as possible.

Another criticism is that few buyers select their next home on the basis of likely heating bills.

Buyers can already ask, anyway, to see past heating bills.

The new European requirement for an EPC on homes does not take effect until 2009 - and it applies only to homes sold or let, not merely put on sale.