Home Information Pack Exemptions to End October 1st 2008

All homes sold including private sales will need a HIP

Submitted by: MikeC (Admin) on 29-Aug-08 02:28:24 PM

The CLG is expected to announce that all homes marketed since before the Home Information Pack (HIP) commencement dates last year, must, from October 1st 2008, have commissioned a HIP.

To refresh memories, the three Home Information Pack commencement dates were:

1. 1 Aug 2007 — sales of homes with four or more bedrooms
2. 10 Sep 2007 — sales of homes with three or more bedrooms
3. 14 Dec 2007 — sales of homes with one or two bedrooms

In simple terms: if a home belonging to one of the above categories was put up for sale before the associated date - and is still on the market from October 1st 2008 - then it will require a HIP. 

Private sales lose exemption

The news emerged following an email from the EPBD helpline this morning to Home Inspector Forum (HIF) member, Alyson Cadd, which also revealed that homes sold "without marketing for sale e.g. by private treaty between family members or Local Authority housing will require an EPC on sale from 1 October 2008. (sic)"

I daresay some people might find the loss of exemption for private sales controversial but, nevertheless, it does wipe out a hitherto grey area.

All houses will need an EPC (HIF post)

Posts: 2

Re: All homes sold including private sales will need a HIP
Reply #1 on : Sun August 31, 2008, 12:35:25

---

Spare a thought for Commercial Agents. On October 1st all existing properties on their registers will need an EPC - there is NO transition period. No one seems to know how many properties exist on agents books. To add to the problem CLG will not say how many Accredited Commercial Assessesors there are. My own research based on figures from Accreditation boards and analysis of the ndepcregister leads me to believe there are around 425 of which 53 are only qualified to do DEC's. So we have around 375 to cover the market. Government reckoned around 220,000 commercial assessments would be needed annually - an average of 18,333 per month. A commercial EPC is more complex and time consuming than a domestic one so how the number of available assessors can get existing stock done and do 18,000 + new properties by October is anyones guess.
Yet another success for CLG.

Posts: 2

H.I.Ps
Reply #2 on : Fri September 12, 2008, 08:20:37

---

All a big fat con by the Labour government, paying money for something no one takes any notice of.