We are often questioned about over-reacting to concerns about the acceptability of personal searches and the wasted costs to consumers. However, government figures published on 8th December that estimated consumers may spend up to £10m every year on searches by local authorities repeating insurance-backed personal searches will confound our critics. The memorandum also explored the long-suspected belief that even though local authorities do provide access to their data, personal search companies do not obtain this “to save costs”. We await with interest how these companies that have been complaining so vocally for so long about lack of access will respond to the scrapping of search insurance on 6th April 2009.
Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) Confusion
The PIQ, due to be introduced in April 2009, was designed to respond to concerns about providing buyers with more information about the property earlier on in the marketing cycle. This lead some commentators to believe that it needed to be there before a property can be marketed. However, the law is clear that while the documentation is an obligatory part of the HIP, it does not state that it needs to be included before marketing may commence. While a government representative has suggested that the regulations may be changed in the future, at this point, from April 2009 a property may still be marketed awaiting the completion of the PIQ.
Naturally, we have already completed the work to integrate PIQs into our online system and an example copy of the final, compliant documentation can be seen here:
www.thepartnershiplimited.com/html/PIQ
Electronic PDF copies of this document are available – please just reply to this email for a copy.
First Day Marketing arrives but no drop-dead date
There remains a little confusion about the scrapping of the first day marketing temporary provisions. From April 2009, in conjunction with the introduction of the PIQ, it will be necessary to have the index, sale statement, title and EPC available before a property can be marketed. Other documents such as leases and search documentation do not have to be available, and the seller (or the agent) has 28 days in which to obtain these documents.
Meanwhile, the issue of the drop-dead date, i.e. when all properties already on the market will need a HIP, is yet to be addressed, so any properties that have been continuously marketed since before August 2007, will only need an EPC, rather than a full HIP.
Finally – here’s to boring predictability
As the only company to publish a newsletter every month for the past three years, we’d like to wish all our readers a very peaceful Christmas and a more boring and predictable 2009.
