Experience of compiling HIP (home information pack)?

Has anyone any experience of preparing a home information pack (HIP) for selling a property?

I need to do so soon and am considering compiling my own, if it's straightforward and will save some dosh. I've seen some info about this on

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but would like to hear about the practicalities/costs. ISTR figures of about £600 were being bandied about as 'average' amounts

- is that about right and how does that divvy up? Eg, presumably I'd still have to pay for the energy efficiency report etc...

Thanks David

Reply to
Lobster
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This will include the energy report (perhaps 100 pounds) the council search which previously the buyer would have paid for, this can be anything from 1-200 pounds and you'll need a copy of the draft contract which you would have had to have paid your solicitor for anyway.

tim

Reply to
tim.....

A HIP has a limited life, I think 3 months. I wouldn't pay 600 as there is no guarantee the house would sell within that time scale, as will be the case, increasingly, as the market slows down. Why not say to the estate agent that if he finds a buyer who wants a HIP then he should get one at his expense.

Reply to
Stickems.

Sorry, that wouldn't work. If your property has 3 bedrooms or more (and is in England & Wales, etc) you can't put the property on the market without either actually having a HIP (or in certain circumstances having requested one).

See

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Mouse.

Reply to
Mouse

Sorry, that wouldn't work. If your property has 3 bedrooms or more (and is in England & Wales, etc) you can't put the property on the market without either actually having a HIP (or in certain circumstances having requested one).

See

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to be precise you can, if you wish to take a chance on getting caught.

tim

Reply to
tim.....

Hmm, what about properties with two bedrooms and an office? If a bedroom is a room with a bed in it, then I'm living in a single bedroom property currently - and it would be a zero bedroom property if I hadn't borrowed a bed from a neighbour. The link given does not shed light on this.

Sid

Reply to
unopened

I'm not sure what's being implied here.

If a HIP has to contain the draft contract, would one normally have to involve a prospective solicitor in compiling the HIP?

Reply to
Clifford Frisby

No that's not the criterion (or how would you define it for a completely empty property?)

HMG's take on this, which is probably correct, is that why would someone try to advertise and promote their property for sale with one bedroom less than it really has, just to save a few hundred quid on a HIP, when the potential losses on the sale price are far more than that. I mean, I'm selling a 3-bedroomed property, and expect to get a price based on that... if I choose to market it as a two-bedroom place then either I will have to ask a much lower price, or put it on at a higher price and hope that (a) buyers who want a 3-bedder will spot the 'subterfuge' and go for it. But then there's the risk of missing lots of potential buyers eg who just search Rightmove for 3 bedders...

(Still hoping to hear from anyone who's compiled their own HIP!)

David

Reply to
Lobster

In message , Lobster writes

The price is more likely to be around £300 plus VAT for up-front payment, alternatively some providers will let you defer payment for up to about 10 months and then charge about £50 extra for the privilege.

Lawpack do offer a DIY hip-pack, but I would be surprised if you could save much more than about £50 that way, as you will still need to pay for searches, EPC etc, you will just be paying yourself for the time and effort in compiling everything and taking on the risk that you c*ck it up.

Reply to
me

On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 13:46:24 +0100 someone who may be " snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net" wrote this:-

The energy performance certificate is a pile of s**te, dumbed down to the level of a meaningless box ticking exercise. I certainly wouldn't pay the sort of fool who works of a solicitor or estate agent a penny for that sort of simplistic exercise unless forced to. Neither would I be stupid enough to pay any attention to such a dumbed down pile of s**te if I was buying a house. I suppose its most useful use would be to put in the compost bin.

On the other hand SAP, in its various forms, has enough detail to almost be useful.

The fact that party politicians, who don't know their arse from their elbow, insist on such things being done by the sort of fool who works for a solicitor or estate agent isn't going to change my mind. As with their other ridiculous ideas, for example the English Part P of the Building Regulations, it simply confirms that we would be better off getting rid of the party politicians, who are really only the representatives of lawyers. I like William Morris' idea of turning the Palace of Westminster into a store for manure. Most of the party politicians would no doubt make reasonable compost.

Reply to
David Hansen

My mate had one done (£500 odd) and mostly a waste of space.

Boiler was mis identified as being non condensing as it was not on the inspectors list of known boliers, so negative on energy rating there.

Negative points for not having all thermostatic valve on all radiators (hallway and bathroom). The boiler instructions state at least one radiator must not have them to act as a bypass.

Misidentified the depth of insulation in the loft, said was 100mm, but was actually considerably more.

Phoned up to complain and inspector said "OK" and just reissued the HIP with one point higher energy rating, a B now instead of C (I think).

The buyers were not interested in the HIP at all, more interested in nice new kitchen and off road parking.....

Mind you he added £1000 to price to cover the HIP costs.

Reply to
Ian_m

On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 16:18:38 +0100 someone who may be "Ian_m" wrote this:-

And an installation with just thermostatic valves would fail a number of other requirements of relatively recent years, including ones to prevent the waste of fuel caused by short cycling of the boiler.

Of course the sort of bod who works for a solicitor or estate agent is not going to even be aware of such things, let alone understand them.

Reply to
David Hansen

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