HIPS for sellers
The seller is responsible for the cost of a Home Information Pack. The person responsible for marketing a property (in most cases, the estate agent) must have commissioned a Home Information Pack by the time that the property is on the market. As soon as you have received the Energy Performance Certificate (a compulsory part of the Pack), you must produce a Pack* and provide potential buyers with a copy of the Pack, or any document from it on request. In most cases, this period is 14 days after the date of the request.
Note: First Day Marketing provisions have been extended for an additional 5 months to allow for full flexibility - from 1 January to 1 June, to ensure continued smooth implementation of HIPs.
If you sell the home before you receive the Home Information Pack, there is no longer any need to provide a Pack. However, you will still have a legal duty to provide the Energy Performance Certificate, which must be given to the buyer at exchange of contracts, or as soon as it is available
Except in relation to properties first placed on the market during the temporary period, which ends on 31 May 2008, which are being marketed without Packs, potential buyers have a right to a copy of the Pack and this should be provided within 14 days of request. Sellers are entitled to make a reasonable charge to cover copying and postage costs and may also refuse to provide a copy in certain limited cases. These are where the seller believes that the person making the request:
1. could not afford the property
2. is not really interested in buying the property
3. is not a person to whom the seller would wish to sell the property
(but this does not allow them to unlawfully discriminate against someone).
How long does a Pack last for?
While the property is on the market, there is no need to update the Home Information Pack (ultimately, the market decides whether the documents remain acceptable and up to date).
If the sale of your property stops and then starts again, you would normally be required to assemble a new Pack and to update those documents which are now out of date according to the requirements of the Home Information Pack Regulations. However, the seller can carry on using the same Pack without the need to update any of the documents in the following circumstances:
Where marketing stopped because the seller accepted an offer and wants to restart marketing because the sale has fallen through, provided that remarketing starts within one year of the date when marketing first began or, if later, within 28 days of the sale falling through. Where marketing has stopped for any other reason, the seller may remarket the property with the same Pack provided that remarketing starts within one year of the date when marketing first began.
Certain key documents were no more than three months old when the property was marketed for sale. Land Registry evidence of title and searches must be no more than three months old when the property is put on the market.
For sellers Exemptions HIP contents Sample HIP Sale statement
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