What is a home information pack?

A home information pack or HIPs for short is a legal document that is required for anyone buying or selling a house. It contains important information that lets the prospective purchaser of the property and their legal representative obtain instant information about the property for sale and reduces time taken in obtaining searches and other important information required when buying a house as well as assuring the buyer that the seller is legally entitled to sell the property in question.

HIPS give the property buyers information that they require free of charge and reduces the cost of the house purchase.
For the seller the home information pack will give the prospective buyer all information upfront and reduce the likelihood of problems further down the line.

What is in a Home Information Pack?

A Home Information Pack must be put together by the property seller before they can actively market the property, it is important to know that as well as the Home Information Pack the seller is also required by law to obtain an Energy Performance Certificate (EPCs) issued by a qualified assessor.
The HIPs must start with an index page detailing all the documents enclosed as an index to the document.
Full address and postcode must also be stated for the property for sale.

Several documents are required by law to be included and these must be stated in the index, if the document is missing the reasons must be stated in the index, for documents obtainable but not included the index should indicate the steps being taken to obtain the documentation.
Any items removed or changed in the HIPs the index must be adjusted accordingly to reflect the change/omission.

It is important that the information contained in the HIPs is accurate and reflects truthfully, so it is suggested the seller confirms the contents if prepared by a third party.

Required documents to be included in the Home Information Pack include a statement of sale by the seller, the Energy Performance Certificate and the Home Condition Report.

Further required documents are dependant on the property title.

Commonhold properties

• Land registry Individual registry and title plan for common parts
• Land registry copy of Commonhold community statement
• Name and address of managing agents and/or other manager
• Rules and regulations outside the Commonhold community statement
• Amendments proposed to the Commonhold community statement, and other rules
• Summary of works affecting the Commonhold (Proposed or current)
• Requests for payment of Commonhold assessment for the past 12 months
• Requests for payment of insurance for the past 12 months
• Other authorised Commonhold information

Leasehold properties

• The lease
• Name and address of the landlord
• Name and address of managing agents or other manager
• Rules and regulations outside the lease
• Amendments proposed to the lease, other rules and regulations
• Written summaries of statements of service charges for the past 36 months
• Summary of works affecting the property (current or proposed)
• Requests for payment of service charges for the past 12 months
• Requests for payment of ground rent for the past 12 months
• Requests for payment of insurance for the past 12 months (Separate to service charges and ground rent)
• Proposed lease (new properties)
• Estimate of service charges, ground rent and insurance payments for the 12 months after completion (new properties)
• Other authorised leasehold information

When will I have to use a Home Information Pack?

Currently Home Information Packs have been put on hold by the government until August 1st 2007 the reason for the delay is the lack of accredited qualified assessors for both the Home Information Packs and the Energy Performance Certificates, many thousands of assessors are in training to satisfy the demand and as such the HIPs will be phased in over a period of time.

Starting on 1st August 2007 all properties with 4 or more bedrooms will be required to use Home Information Packs and obtain Energy Performance Certificates; they will be permitted to market their homes as soon as a pack has been commissioned and not when the pack is available which will be introduced by the end of the year.
Also initially the Energy Performance Certificates can be up to 1 year old when the property is put up for sale eventually this will be reduced to just 3 months.

Where can i get a Home Information Pack?

Try the following company for your Home information pack Derbyshire East Midlands.