Hips 'complicate market'

Home Information Packs (Hips) have been criticised for making the property market more expensive and complicated at a difficult time for housing, according to an estate agent.

Your Move criticised Hips, which are legally required for every home placed on to the market, believing that the pack added expense and that it "obviously didn't help the market".

In an IPSOS Mori Poll, carried out by the government in March 2008, 41 per cent of buyers felt that Hips did not make the buying process any simpler.

Jane Walmsley, area sales director at Your Move, admitted that if the process is done right it is not a huge problem.

She said: "If it's streamlined in the way that it is with us then we have no problem obtaining a Hip but I do hear stories of things not being available in time and that's usually because it's a smaller outlet that's doing it."

A Hip includes mandatory and optional documents that are required when a home is bought or sold, including a copy of the lease; a building insurance policy; an energy performance certificate and a home condition report.

UK Property News posted on 07/08/2008 14:13:08