The knives are out for the home information pack and those who would like to see the pack condemned to the history books seem to be very quick to block their ears the moment anybody comes up with a suggestion on how the HIP could be used as a basis for badly needed housing reform.
I have previously written at some length about the type of reform one could introduce and there are several good proposals circulating within industry that would present a new government with some constructive ideas. Most of these highlight the benefit of early disclosure of legal documents and information. Rather than re-hashing the arguments advanced in support of such reform I wish in this article to focus instead on other possible applications for the HIP, or an enhanced HIP.
It is sometimes easy to forget that the purpose of the mandation behind the HIP is to oblige a home seller to deliver information and documents on a property to be sold at a very early stage of the home selling process. This is not with the aim of making life more difficult for some estate agents, but rather for the benefit of you and me and other consumers. Buying a house is a major decision normally involving a large sum of money, and is therefore one where it is important that as much information on the property and its surrounding land can be given upfront so as to ensure an informed choice can be made.
At present there is only a limited amount of information available when we look at which property to select for viewing purposes. In the main we are apart from the information contained within a HIP, left to rely on sale particulars drawn up by estate agents, and which are primarily designed and prepared to draw us across the threshold in the hope we fall in love with the property and decide to buy it.
Would it not be so much more helpful if we were able to access within a HIP details of the local schools, the local crime rate, whether the property is situated in a flood plane, the broadband speed, the local amenities, the price at which the property was previously sold, details of previous suppliers of legal services, the local transport system.
In addition to this, and stemming from the energy rating, the pack could include details of grants for energy improvement, and also of schemes such as the Green Refit policy that the Conservatives seem excited about.
Local Council Information sheets could be included making the HIP an ideal and cheap means of distributing important information to householders.
The Property Information Questionaire has since its introduction, helped to draw the householder more into the process of selling and buying and by adding and including more consumer based information, the HIP can only succeed at becoming a more consumer friendly product.
Some HIP suppliers already supply certain of this information and are therefore already conferring extra benefit for the consumer. By leaving the HIP in place and allowing industry to continue to introduce other ‘added value’ ideas can only serve in may view to enhance the HIP experience and make consumers more involved in the selling and buying process.
Looking ahead why not look at developing the HIP further and turning it into a property log book to enable historical information like maintenance to be retained and requiring the legal aspects to be updated each time the property is sold? This can only result in a cost saving to both seller and buyer.
The point to all of this is that if we are going to move forward with making moving home more costs effective and less stressful for the consumer, we must not allow the HIP to go, as without it any hope of moving forward with progressive reform will be lost for many years and perhaps decades to come.
I have previously written at some length about the type of reform one could introduce and there are several good proposals circulating within industry that would present a new government with some constructive ideas. Most of these highlight the benefit of early disclosure of legal documents and information. Rather than re-hashing the arguments advanced in support of such reform I wish in this article to focus instead on other possible applications for the HIP, or an enhanced HIP.
It is sometimes easy to forget that the purpose of the mandation behind the HIP is to oblige a home seller to deliver information and documents on a property to be sold at a very early stage of the home selling process. This is not with the aim of making life more difficult for some estate agents, but rather for the benefit of you and me and other consumers. Buying a house is a major decision normally involving a large sum of money, and is therefore one where it is important that as much information on the property and its surrounding land can be given upfront so as to ensure an informed choice can be made.
At present there is only a limited amount of information available when we look at which property to select for viewing purposes. In the main we are apart from the information contained within a HIP, left to rely on sale particulars drawn up by estate agents, and which are primarily designed and prepared to draw us across the threshold in the hope we fall in love with the property and decide to buy it.
Would it not be so much more helpful if we were able to access within a HIP details of the local schools, the local crime rate, whether the property is situated in a flood plane, the broadband speed, the local amenities, the price at which the property was previously sold, details of previous suppliers of legal services, the local transport system.
In addition to this, and stemming from the energy rating, the pack could include details of grants for energy improvement, and also of schemes such as the Green Refit policy that the Conservatives seem excited about.
Local Council Information sheets could be included making the HIP an ideal and cheap means of distributing important information to householders.
The Property Information Questionaire has since its introduction, helped to draw the householder more into the process of selling and buying and by adding and including more consumer based information, the HIP can only succeed at becoming a more consumer friendly product.
Some HIP suppliers already supply certain of this information and are therefore already conferring extra benefit for the consumer. By leaving the HIP in place and allowing industry to continue to introduce other ‘added value’ ideas can only serve in may view to enhance the HIP experience and make consumers more involved in the selling and buying process.
Looking ahead why not look at developing the HIP further and turning it into a property log book to enable historical information like maintenance to be retained and requiring the legal aspects to be updated each time the property is sold? This can only result in a cost saving to both seller and buyer.
The point to all of this is that if we are going to move forward with making moving home more costs effective and less stressful for the consumer, we must not allow the HIP to go, as without it any hope of moving forward with progressive reform will be lost for many years and perhaps decades to come.
There are some very good ideas in this - who could possibly object to having a log-book with all records regarding the property included and handed on to the next owner? When I buy a car, I expect to see all receipts for spares and servicing plus MOT failure reports so I know what has been done to keep the car on the road.
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth can't this be done for property?