Suspend Hips, estate agents say

Estate agents are calling for home sellers’ packs to be suspended, branding them an expensive waste of time.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents and a longtime critic of the home information packs (Hips) scheme, said the £300 price tag of the packs punishes sellers already suffering from the effects of market devaluations.

After spending more than a decade in the planning stages, the timing for the introduction of Hips could hardly have been worse.

Just one year after it became mandatory for all property sellers in England and Wales to purchase a Hip before marketing their home, house prices fell 16 per cent on average, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

With the property market expected to remain stagnant in 2009, estate agents have called for the sellers’ packs to be suspended for at least a year to allow the market time to recover.

While no one is pinning the blame for a global recession on the sellers’ packs, estate agents have argued that, in a tricky market, forcing homeowners to spend money before they’ve sold their home is unhelpful.

The National Audit Office found that 80 per cent of buyers do not see a Hip before making an offer on a house, and most said the Hip had no effect on their decision.

The Conservative party has said it is committed to abolishing Hips.

Recently, a committee charged with assessing the introduction of Hips found that the constant changes and setbacks to the scheme’s introduction left the government struggling to refine it just as the housing market needed robust and effective initiatives.

Margaret Beckett, the housing minister, has acknowledged that Hips are not perfect, but insists they are not the cause of the housing market slump. The government and the Hip providers point out that the root of the problem is buyers who are unable and unwilling to buy.

Hip providers lay the blame for discontent surrounding the scheme at the door of estate agents, who they argue are being deliberately awkward. For agents, the packs require extra work and could lead to a buyer reducing an offer.

Mike Ockenden, director-general of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers, pointed out that the information contained in a report is nothing more than a seller would eventually have to provide, and that the industry is already united in the belief that speeding up the process of home buying would result in more sales.

The government also appears committed to Hips. A communities and local government spokesman confirmed that there was no plan to suspend the packs, and a recent announcement that further information will be included in the packs from April suggests that they are here to stay.

A history of hiccups

The idea for a sellers’ pack was first raised more than 10 years ago as way to speed up the process of purchasing a home.

Originally, the packs were intended to contain all the information a buyer could need, including a survey of the property. Thousands of people trained as home inspectors to compile the reports and surveys but, in summer 2006, Yvette Cooper, the housing minister, removed the survey element from the compulsory report.

The scheme was put on hold until mid-2007 while property industry groups tried to halt it. The packs were finally phased in from August 2007, and it wasn’t until December 2008 that Hips became compulsory for all property sales in England, Scotland and Wales.

Recently, the government said it was extending the information in Hips to include a property details questionnaire.

Hip providers hope this will pave the way for the reintroduction of a full property survey in the packs.