''If you believe the advertisements''

If you believe the advertisements, if you pay more than £299 for a HIP then you’re clearly wasting money. However, given recent examples of providers illegally including mortgage documents in a HIP, taking three weeks to organise an energy inspection and carrying out searches on the wrong property, perhaps these cheap products might not be so cost-effective after all. These low prices mean that assessors are being paid only £65 to carry out energy inspections, a job that can take several hours. In one case, an assessor willing to do the work for this money had to travel 130 miles around the M25 to get to the property. Maybe he took advantage of the queues on the motorway to file the report from his car, because it produced an energy efficiency rating of 1, with no scope to improve this figure, which is somewhat unusual to say the least.

Personal search usage and performance

As reported last month, our concerns about the costs to consumers through the use of personal searches are being borne out. We currently have two cases that require a quick exchange. One seller paid for an authorised local authority search, the other wanted to save money with a personal search. As the first client had not instructed their solicitor when marketing the property, the time taken to get the searches would have meant the deal wouldn’t have gone through, but the HIP has put them in a position where the sale can be completed in time. However, in the second case, the use of a personal search may now stop the transaction because of concerns about whether the mortgage lender will accept it.

We are already seeing personal search appointment times start to stretch. In a recent case, much to the disappointment of the estate agent, the local authority could not make an appointment with a personal search agent for eight working days, introducing significant delays into the instruction. With the proportion of personal searches increasing, such delays and worse are expected to become commonplace.

Trading standards activity

Trading standards officers are actively carrying out inspections of estate agents to ensure that they are complying with the Home Information Pack regulations. We are aware of instances in Hampshire where officers have turned up unannounced at agents and asked for an explanation of how they are ordering HIPs and the processes they use to obtain these. They have also sent out questionnaires to all agents asking for acknowledgement of their processes and procedures.

HIPs for new-builds

There is some confusion over the requirements for a HIP for newly built homes. This is because under the original legislation, a HIP was required for all properties that were marketed for sale, including newly built properties, whether constructed or not. Currently, if a new property is being marketed that conforms to the older Building Regulations 2006 regime then it will NOT need a HIP. Therefore, to determine whether a new property needs a HIP, it will be necessary to check which building regulations it conforms to.

Media Coverage

We were pleased that the Daily Telegraph picked up on our concerns about the service offered by a major water company in their production of drainage searches, with some outstanding for over 30 days. The company involved should take heed of Thames Water, who are consistently producing high quality reports sometimes within a matter of hours.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/13/nhip113.xml

''We are delighted to see the world hasn’t ended''

Six weeks into the introduction of Home Information Packs (HIPs), with over 70% of the market now requiring a HIP and we are delighted to see the sun continues to rise in the east and the world hasn’t ended. Original concerns that HIPs would deter people from moving house is difficult to validate although it has been reported that instruction rates in August for four bedroom properties were reduced, compared to earlier, albeit traditionally busier, months. To date we have found only one speculative seller that was put off selling by the price of a HIP - a tiny minority of the hundreds of instructions we have taken over the past few weeks.

HIP delivery times

As expected, there have been some missed expectations with the delivery times of HIPs. Most providers had said they would be able to complete a HIP within five days, but this appears to have been rather optimistic. Despite one of the largest HIP providers expressing concern that the delays are being causd by their use of personal search agents, there are other aspects that affect delivery performance. In particular, we had warned about the performance of some of the water companies and as is shown below, these warnings have proved to be accurate.

Drainage search return times

With only official drainage searches from the water companies allowed in a HIP, the delays that are currently being experienced in their return are starting to be time consuming. Searches are taking over four weeks with one company and we have yet to see evidence that the backlog is easing. We have already seen one HIP provider use a personal drainage search instead, which we assume to be an attempt to overcome these delays. Although currently the time pressure on search returns is not critical, performance will need to improve if realistic timescales are to be achieved with more properties coming onto the market.

Strutt and Parker / Lane Fox

Following their recent merger, two of our clients, Lane Fox and Strutt and Parker have today released their unified branding with all but two Lane Fox offices now under the new Strutt and Parker image. We wish them all the best for the future, and look forward to continue to support them in the delivery of HIPs. The feedback on the ReapIT integration for HIP ordering has been extremely positive with negotiators requiring just a single click to confirm an order with no data re-keying required.

HIPcode

This month, the Partnership became the latest signatory to the HIPcode, the de facto standard code of practice for HIP providers. The HIPcode dictates that signatories must have at least £2m professional indemnity insurance cover and that a customer redress scheme must be in place. Naturally, The Partnership fully supports the imposition of standards and regulations and is delighted to be working more closely with this standard as supported by the Association of HIP Providers to ensure professional standards in the industry are maintained.

Media Coverage

Last month, our concerns about the use of personal searches in HIPs created significant awareness in major newspapers and media. We were pleased to receive coverage on Channel 4 news with The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and Evening Standard all reporting on this issue. Although some have claimed it was a “storm in a teacup” we have already heard anecdotal reports of solicitors rejecting HIPs with personal searches and hope to bring more details of this story next month.

With almost indecent haste ...

... the announcement of HIPs for three bedroom properties arrived unseasonably early last Friday. With many observers expecting the four bedroom rule to be with us for the foreseeable future, the news that from September 10th, HIPs will be needed on half of all properties being marketed came somewhat as a surprise. Although we have found that HIPs seem to be going smoothly albeit with a few minor teething problems, we await with interest this rapid increase in volumes and the potential impact it will have on the service that providers will be able to offer.

Local Authority Personal Searches

We have always highlighted our concerns about the delivery times and acceptability of personal local authority searches within HIPs. Recent feedback from one agent revealed that our concerns about delivery times seem well-founded. A HIP provider had promised the agent a turnaround of 5 working days to produce a HIP, but the searches have delayed this by three weeks. We remain convinced that Authorised local authority searches are the most effective solution and await the statistics from buyer’s solicitors that are presented with HIPs on how many will accept personal searches.

The press release on this topic is available here:

http://www.thepartnershiplimited.com/Documents/The%20Partnership%20-%20HIP%20Rejections%20010807.pdf

EPC Charts

One of the more interesting challenges set for agents and providers was the inclusion of EPC charts on property particulars. The interim regulations that are in place until the end of the year allow properties to be marketed when a HIP has been commissioned which has lead to confusion about whether the EPC charts still need to be included. To clarify the position - the rule is that when an EPC is available, the corresponding chart MUST be included on particulars. If it can be shown that despite an agent's best efforts, it has not been possible to produce an EPC by the time the particulars are printed, the charts do not have to be included.

LawPack Self-Help Kit

We are delighted to announce that the LawPack self-help kit for HIPs started shipping last Monday. Copies can be ordered directly from our website:

http://www.thepartnershiplimited.com/html/lawpack.html

Reapit integration

Estate agents using Reapit can take advantage of the direct link now available between RPS and our HIP ordering system. Users can order a HIP with just several mouse clicks, with all the necessary information passed directly to our system.

More details can be found here:

http://www.thepartnershiplimited.com/html/technology.html

Media Coverage

Our concerns about the acceptability of personal searches in HIPs were highlighted with stories in the Daily Express, The Observer and The Negotiator, and we were delighted to have an article on the current position with HIPs published in The New Law Journal.