From April, we may see former personal search agents outside council offices wearing placards with the same message as the redundant employee in Joel Schumacher’s classic film,“Falling Down”. This is because from that time, the current method of using insurance to cover missing information in personal searches can no longer be used and local authorities will be able to charge for providing complete information, which observers believe will make the personal search market uncompetitive. Given that many solicitors tend to trust only the drainage search element of a HIP, this long overdue change could mean a wider use of official searches in a HIP, making them more useful. While we sympathise with anyone whose job is at risk, the two-tier system introduced by the use of personal searches has always undermined the HIP and the change is welcomed.
Domestic Energy Assessors and access
The accountability of energy assessors is starting to be questioned with anecdotal evidence that agents are becoming concerned about the quality of individuals that are, in effect, representing their firm. In addition to these concerns, we have also seen issues with owners (and in particular landlords) being unwilling to allow entry for assessors. However, under the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations, access must be provided for assessors and landlords cannot deny access when requested. Finally, given that after April 6th the speed with which Energy Performance Certificates can be produced will be vital, those firms currently putting up with response times of 1-2 weeks may find that they need to review their suppliers.
Property Information Questionnaires (PIQ)
It is becoming clear that after April 6th, one of the key issues determining whether a property may be marketed will be the return of the completed Property Information Questionnaire. These forms must be filled out by the seller and returned to the HIP provider before a property may be marketed. Many of our clients feel that the most effective method will be to provide the form to the client as part of the instruction process and for the HIP provider to follow up on their return. We are already supplying stocks of these to our clients, along with reply paid envelopes and naturally promoting the online completion of the form through our system.
Current legal position
It is apparent that some HIP providers are trying to convince sellers to pay for documents to be refreshed in HIPs that are a year old. However, searches and title information only need to be refreshed if a property is taken off the market a year after it was first marketed and then remarketed again. Recognising this, and to assist our clients, we provide a unique warning system which alerts to agent to properties that have been on the market a year to check their records.
We have produced a summary sheet which summarises the current legal position which can be downloaded here:
http://www.thepartnershiplimited.com/Documents/The%20Current%20Position%20-%20February%202009.pdf
