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It is now mandatory for those selling a domestic property to have a Home Information Pack or HIP when selling their property. Presently the regulations still allow you to market your property as soon as you have commissioned rather than produced your HIP but this is subject to constant review and may change shortly. We have taken all practical steps necessary, including IT investment, to provide our house selling clients with a top quality HIP within a matter of days. Moreover, if we are instructed in connection with a client’s property sale right through to completion we will provide the HIP at cost price. A HIP will cost £233.83 for a freehold property and £263.21 for a leasehold. Additional Information A HIP largely contains information which until now would have been gathered by a prospective Buyer’s solicitor: a brief title description e.g. freehold registered and sold with vacant possession (but not a formal draft sale and purchase contract), evidence of title, planning consents, replies to standard searches (local land charges search and water/drainage searches) and an index. The only notable addition is the Energy Performance Certificate ‘EPC’ which will give details of the property’s size, average energy use per square metre, carbon dioxide emissions and an estimate of how much it will cost to provide heat, light and water for the property. We will supply separately from the HIP once a buyer has been found a Fixtures Fittings and Contents Form and a Seller's Property Information Form, both of which need to be completed by the seller. A HIP for leasehold property will also need to include a copy of the lease, associated legal documents, details of service charges and regulations made by the landlord or by the management company. Where we are instructed to prepare a HIP for a seller client, certainly where the property is freehold, and whether registered or unregistered, we expect the HIP to be fully prepared within the course of a week. For leasehold clients compilation of the HIP is more problematic because we have to rely on the managing agents or freeholder to come up with information on service charges and confirmation that the ground-rent has been paid up to date. They invariably make a charge for this information and may not move as quickly as you or we would like. The advent of HIPs has unfortunately spawned a whole new industry of ‘HIP Providers’ who are aggressively marketing their product. Some estate agents seeing this as another cross selling opportunity, have been persuading their seller clients not to use their existing solicitor or solicitor of choice, but one nominated by or on the panel of HIP Providers with whom the agent has signed up. In return for this diversion of business the estate agent receives a ‘referral fee’ and on the return of the completed HIP to the agent, government regulations allow the agent to mark up the cost price of the HIP which the seller has to pay. The HIP Provider can extract a second ‘referral fee’ by passing on the legal work relating to the sale to their panel solicitor who may well be based at the other end of the country and the bulk of whose conveyancing staff are unlikely to be legally qualified. There are no free lunches and these referral fees and mark ups, heavily disguised by increased agents and solicitors fees, will ultimately be paid by the unwitting seller. Beware also of estate agents offering ‘free HIPS’ which are linked to an increased commission rate since the differential is unlikely to be in your favour. We are able to keep our conveyancing fees consistently low (please compare the quotations on this website with those of our competitors) because we do not pay referral fees and our ability to provide impartial and independent legal advice is not compromised. If you are thinking of selling your house we would strongly recommend you approach us first so that we can prepare your HIP whilst you arrange valuations by various agents and obtain marketing appraisals. In that way, the HIP will be ready by the time you decide which agent to instruct and the property can be placed on the market immediately. If you require further information about HIPS please do not hesitate to contact us and remember please, it is in your best interest to instruct us before you instruct an estate agent to market the property for sale.
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