HIPS For 3 Bedrooms Starts Today
From today Home Information Packs (HIPS) will have to accompany all three-bedroom houses placed on the market. That means most family homes and about two thirds of all properties now need a Hip to be sold.
This expansion of the scheme has increased the criticism and anger of many industry experts who are already blaming HIPS for the fall in the number of houses with four or more bedrooms on the market since it was introduced for these properties in August. They claim that sellers are being put off by the cost of the packs, which can be more than £600 and also the huge confusion and uncertainty surrounding the new law.
Speaking in the Telegraph Jeremy Leaf, the housing spokesman for the RICS, launched a scathing attack on the Government's handling of the issue.
"I have never known legislation so badly introduced......Homeowners clearly have no faith in the packs or the policy, which have only brought more bureaucracy and mass uncertainty to an already paralysed market.Before they are heaped on the rest of homeowners, we need to see some evidence-based justification that this policy benefits consumers. At the moment, it doesn't exist."
Leading Estate Agents have already pointed out that consumers would be forced to waste more than £200 million on HIPs compiled for the 500,000 properties on the market that fail to sell each year.
It would seem that that the debate will continue rage on the benefits of HIPS for some time to come. On one side all most all of the property industry claiming there is no benefit , on the other the government bestowing its virtues at every turn, although with the Treasury standing to gain over £100 million in VAT revenue as a result of HIPS the odds are stacked against the industry changing government policy at this stage.
This expansion of the scheme has increased the criticism and anger of many industry experts who are already blaming HIPS for the fall in the number of houses with four or more bedrooms on the market since it was introduced for these properties in August. They claim that sellers are being put off by the cost of the packs, which can be more than £600 and also the huge confusion and uncertainty surrounding the new law.
Speaking in the Telegraph Jeremy Leaf, the housing spokesman for the RICS, launched a scathing attack on the Government's handling of the issue.
"I have never known legislation so badly introduced......Homeowners clearly have no faith in the packs or the policy, which have only brought more bureaucracy and mass uncertainty to an already paralysed market.Before they are heaped on the rest of homeowners, we need to see some evidence-based justification that this policy benefits consumers. At the moment, it doesn't exist."
Leading Estate Agents have already pointed out that consumers would be forced to waste more than £200 million on HIPs compiled for the 500,000 properties on the market that fail to sell each year.
It would seem that that the debate will continue rage on the benefits of HIPS for some time to come. On one side all most all of the property industry claiming there is no benefit , on the other the government bestowing its virtues at every turn, although with the Treasury standing to gain over £100 million in VAT revenue as a result of HIPS the odds are stacked against the industry changing government policy at this stage.
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