Hip Hip! Hooray...those pointless packs have gone!

Reaction to the decision to suspend Home Information Packs from today.

Andersons Solicitors in Nottingham have welcomed the swift action by the new coalition government to suspend Home Information Packs.

Emma Dancer said: "This is great news for people selling their homes in these difficult times. HIPs have been a thorn in the side of the housing market for the last three years. They cost sellers hundreds of pounds yet most buyers hardly bothered looking at them."

"Unfortunately, HIPs lost most of their value when the decision was taken not to include Home Condition reports. It meant the only thing they contained of real value was the Energy Performance Certificates which the Government has wisely decided to keep."

"Having taken the decision to scrap HIPS it was important the Government moved quickly to avoid any damage to the housing market. If they had delayed, many people may have waited before putting their house up for sale so they could avoid having to buy a HIP. Now it's clear they are gone, people can get on with selling their homes which will help the market to recover."

For more information please contact Emma Dancer on edancer@andersonssolicitors.co.uk.

Landlords could reclaim thousands from letting agents

Buy to let landlords in Nottingham may be able to reclaim hundreds of thousands of pounds paid in commission to letting agents, following a ruling by the High Court.

Mr Justice Mann said that terms and conditions drawn up by the letting agency Foxtons were unfair and contained “traps and time bombs” for landlords.

The terms required landlords to pay substantial commission when a tenant remained in a property after the initial period of tenancy had expired – even if Foxtons played no part in persuading the tenant to stay and did nothing to collect the rent or manage the property.

Other unfair terms included requiring a landlord to pay commission even after the property had been sold and allowing Foxtons to receive a full estate agent’s commission for sale of the property to a tenant.

Mr Justice Mann held that the terms were unfair because they put the consumer – the landlord – at a disadvantage and had not been properly highlighted when the agreements were drawn up. He said a typical consumer would be unlikely to read standard terms very carefully and would not expect important conditions to be slipped into the small print.

The case was brought by the Office of Fair Trading.

Emma Dancer of Andersons solicitors in Nottingham said Foxtons were not the only letting agents to have terms of this kind and so the ruling was a major boost for private landlords.

“Buy to let landlords who have unwittingly entered into unfair agreements of this kind may now have a good chance of recovering some of the money they have paid in commissions.”

Emma Dancer is a Commercial & Residential Property Partner at Andersons Solicitors she can be contacted on 0115 988 6722 or by emailing: edancer@andersonssolicitors.co.uk

Half-way house HIPs switch focus to energy efficiency

The government surprised everyone with its U Turn announcement that Home Information Packs won’t have to contain surveys giving details of the property’s condition. Property lawyer Emma Dancer of Andersons Solicitors in Nottingham says the emphasis now switches to energy efficiency certificates which could pressurise many people into making extensive improvements to their home before trying to sell.
There were bound to be a few surprises when the Government announced its final plans about Home Information Packs but no one expected the bombshell that suddenly came our way.
The packs come into effect next June and are intended to make the process of buying a house quicker and easier. Under the new system, the house seller will have to provide detailed information about the property which can then be made available to potential buyers right at the outset.
Under the government’s original plans, the main feature of the system was that these packs should contain a home condition report – basically a survey giving details about the property. They were intended to remove the need for buyers to carry out their own survey and were to be provided by an army of 7,000 specially trained inspectors. Now the government says it’s been forced to scrap this plan because there isn’t enough time to train all the inspectors needed. So far there are only a few hundred qualified to take on the work. It means buyers will have to provide their own survey as they do under the present system.
The scheme will still go ahead as planned from 1st June next year but the contents of the Home Information Packs will be somewhat lighter. The government is still urging sellers to provide a home condition report but it will no longer be compulsory. The main pieces of information that now have to be provided are the results of local authority searches, title documents and an energy efficiency certificate.
The decision to make energy certificates compulsory was also something of a surprise and they are now likely to be seen as the main focus of HIPs. The certificates will be provided by independent inspectors who will assess the property’s energy efficiency and then grade it from A to G. The inspectors will have to take into account carbon emissions and the cost of heating, lighting and producing hot water.
Wasted energy can prove costly and many buyers are likely to be put off by a report saying their potential new home literally burns up money. It means many sellers may feel obliged to make improvements to their property’s energy efficiency before they try to sell it.
Although energy performance certificates will be compulsory, it will be left to the seller to decide whether to include an environmental report. This would provide information about whether or not the property is built on or close to land that may have been contaminated in the past by industrial use.
The fact that the environmental reports are not compulsory has been criticised by many experts because some unwary buyers may purchase a house without realising it might be on contaminated land. It means anyone looking at a property in future ought to ask their solicitor to obtain an environmental report if one isn’t already provided in the Home Information Pack.
The government has also promised to make local searches faster and cheaper by making information held by local authorities more readily available. There will also be a new body to deal with complaints against estate agents.

The packs were expected to cost the house seller between £600 and £1000 depending on the size of the property. It’s unclear what effect the decision not to make home condition reports obligatory will have on those prices but the Association of Home Information Pack Providers believes it will be marginal because inspectors will still have to visit a property to carry out an energy assessment.

Despite being watered down somewhat, HIPs will still be compulsory and anyone who puts a house up for sale without first providing a pack risks being fined £200 a day. Thankfully, Housing Minister Yvette Cooper has now announced that there will be a five-month grace period for properties put on the market before 1 June next year.

That will give people time to get used to the new system and avoid unnecessary penalties. Anyone thinking of selling their home over the next 12 months needs to make sure they understand about HIPs and how to obtain one.

Emma Dancer is Solicitor within our Property team at Andersons Solicitors in Nottingham. He can be contacted on edancer@andersonsolicitors.co.uk or tel: 0115 988 6722.


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