HIP definition of bedrooms

From August 1st, homeowners of 4 bedroom and larger homes in England and Wales, will be legally obliged to supply buyers with the packs, known as HIPs, which will include a certificate that rates a property’s energy efficiency.

All is not lost, with no legal definition of what is a 4 bedroom or larger property be HIP free, by marketing your home, either by calling your bedrooms -Rooms- or 3 bedrooms plus box room.. see our post on HIPS definition

• This will affect  around 17% of houses which have four bedrooms or more, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

 

1. So the Cheaper option is to not bother with the  £700 HIP at all.

2. If you make a private sale you do not need a Hip. (sell to neighbor Friend or work colleague)

3. Refuse the HIP and market your property when you want to.

4. Trading Standards do not consider HIP violations a top priority

5. It is estimated that the HIPs  pack will cost between £700 to produce.

Home sellers who market their houses without the pack face a possible fixed-penalty fine from trading standards officers of £200. Failure to produce a pack, however, will not be a criminal offence.

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 Amount of  HIP penalty charge

The amount of a penalty charge specified in a notice given to a person under section 168 of the 2004 Act (penalty charge notices) shall be £200.

Section 168 of the 2004 Housing Act isn’t much clearer, but the second paragraph states: 168 Penalty charge notices(2).

 A penalty charge notice may not be given after the end of the period of six months beginning with the day (or in the case of a continuing breach the last day) on which the breach of duty was committed.

This implies that marketing of a property without a HIP or a good excuse would be a continuing breach, therefore the penalty for not having a HIP would be £200.

This from Lacors

The Local Authorities Co-ordinator for Regulatory Services (Lacors), which represents town hall trading standards departments, which will be responsible for policing the system, stressed that fines would not be enforced because it would be too costly.

Lacors chairman, councillor Geoffrey Theobald, stressed town halls will not have criminal powers to investigate any possible breaches and will have to chase unpaid fines through the civil courts. He added: ‘We have said from the outset that this is inappropriate as it would cost too much money to make it worthwhile pursuing such cases.

‘This means that there is no real incentive for estate agents or sellers to ensure there is a correct home information pack because the likelihood of proceedings being taken against them is very low.

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Nick Salmon, the commercial director of Harrison Murray estate agents and founder of the campaign group Splinta – Seller’s Pack Law Is Not The Answer – said that many homeowners would “do the maths” and risk the fine.

“There is a great deal of anger among homeowners who do not see the point of these packs and consider them yet another stealth tax,” he said. “Sellers have nothing but contempt for the new law and many will go ahead without HIPs, especially as a potential fine is less than the cost of the pack.”

Mr Salmon also said that the majority of homeowners were “completely in the dark” about HIPs and described the Government’s publicity campaign for the packs as “pathetic”.

Paul Marsh, the deputy vice-president of the Law Society, and a member of its HIPs task-force, attacked the scheme as a “crackpot idea”. “With packs costing in excess of £400, sellers may as well send a £200 cheque to trading standards officers saying they don’t propose to have it,” he said. “I am sure most trading standards officers have better things to do than knock on people’s doors to see if they have a home information pack.”

Mr Marsh also claimed that consumers would be forced to waste more than £200 million on packs compiled for the 500,000 properties on the market that fail to sell each year.

Michael Gove, the shadow housing minister, attacked the Government for “entirely misconceiving and mishandling” the introduction of HIPs. “As every week goes by, a new flaw emerges with the scheme which is certain to damage the stability and health of the housing market,” he said.

“The only people now behind HIPs are the Government out of their vanity to meet the deadline and the pack providers for their vested interest.”

The packs are widely opposed by members of the property industry, including the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the National Association of Estate Agents. Last week, it emerged that only 1,000 people have trained as inspectors, out of the Government’s target of 7,400.

This makes the home information pack a complete farce and will cause horrendous delays in the Housing market, as sellers wait for there EPC Energy performance certificate.