HIPS? What the......?

You may have read about something about them, and then turned the page over. After all Home Information Packs ( they were included in the Government's Housing Act 2004 ) were not due to come into force until June 2007. After that they might well have cost you an unnecessary small fortune - for no good purpose. But now I believe they are almost as dead as the proverbial and much maligned dodo:

On Tuesday 18th July 2006 the Government Minister reponsible announced that a major portion of the HIPs law was being delayed......indefinitely. This is partly because the HIPs industry has been unable to recruit enough Home Inspectors to do the work. And partly because it has finally dawned on Ministers that the whole idea is rather less popular than bubonic plague.

I always believed HIPs were going to be very bad news for house buyers, house sellers and expensively-trained Home Inspectors. I set out to stop this law before it started. On April 18^th the House of Commons got a chance to hear me spell out details of my  "Housing Act 2004 Amendment Bill”. This was a serious proposal to alter the existing law by repealing those sections which refer to Home Information Packs.  My Bill was introduced under the Ten Minute Rule and here's what I said: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060418/debtext/60418-11.htm#60418-11_head0

• I have no doubt that the Housing Market needs change. I am not convinced HIPs are the right change. I would personally prefer to see the introduction of the sort of system that has served Scottish house buyers and sellers so well for so long.

• This is not and should not be a party political issue. HIPs were opposed in the Commons and Lords by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. There are some Labour MPs who still harbour doubts - just as there are supporters of different parties in the country as a whole who take a variety of contrary views.

Common sense at last seems to be dawning on Her Majesty's Government. Politics ought to be about changing things for the better. That is the main reason I opposed HIPs – because it would be a change for the worse.

 

Now Home Condition Reports (HCRs - the central, expensive and controversial element of HIPs) are being made VOLUNTARY. I think this is the beginning of the end for an ill-considered idea. If you want to get involved please CONTACT ME  (My Bill can be read by clicking the link below: HC167.pdf )

Q: 

What have Langdons, Cox & Seddon, Webbers, Wilkie May & Tuckwood,and Chanin & Thomas got in common?

A:  

They are Minehead's main estate agents and they've been helping me organise England's first comprehensive HIP survey. Thousands of forms were distributed to buyers and sellers in the town. The results provide a valuable guide to genuine public opinion about this issue. The Government claims HIPs are popular, but has done NO research of its own. Minehead has shown the nation what people really think.

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• http://www.splintacampaign.co.uk  - SPLINTA the anti-HIPS site
• http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1150984 -  Prescott's old Dep't with a new name
• http://www.hipfreehomes.co.uk/  - A site that claims it can get round HIPS
• http://www.hipsdirect.com/ - A HIPS-friendly site that is remarkably iffy about HIPS!
• http://www.homeinformationpacks.com/ - Trevor Kent wants HIPs scrapped
• http://hbf.sqnsolutions.com/index.php?id=1483 - House Builders Federation view
• http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/view=newsarticle.law?NEWSID=265634 - The Law Society
• HIP_document.pdf - Council of Mortgage Lenders