Home Information Packs delayed

22 May 2007

The introduction of Home Information Packs is to be delayed until 1 August – when they will be brought in for sales of homes with four or more bedrooms. 

HIPs were due to become compulsory for all home sales in England and Wales from 1 June, but now the minister in charge of HIPs – Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly – has told MPs that the packs will be phased in.  She also said that to begin with, sellers would only have to have commissioned a pack, rather than have a completed one, before marketing their property.

The delay has been caused by a judge ruling on a legal challenge from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, who said there’d been a lack of proper consultation on the packs.  The judge said that the energy performance certificates should be left out of HIPs “for the time being”.

Ruth Kelly said that, in the wake of the legal ruling, it was sensible to delay the packs rather than launching them without the energy certificate.  She said the two-month delay would allow more time for energy assessors to be trained.  At the moment, there are only 520 trained and accredited assessors – rather than the 2,000 or more that are needed.

The Liberal Democrats have accused the Government of “complete incompetence” over HIPs – which were supposed to speed up the house buying process.  They said:  “The piecemeal implementation of this jinxed scheme will only result in yet more confusion for buyers and sellers.”