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Ahipp urges Hip rollout to all homes

Thursday, 27 September 2007 12:00 AM

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) is calling on the government to rollout home information packs (Hips) to all remaining property in the UK.

Hips were introduced to cover four-bedroom properties on August 1st and extended to three-bedroom homes on September 10th.

They presently cover 63 per cent of the national housing stock, costing around £350 each.

However, a large number of properties - smaller homes with few bedrooms - remain outside the remit of the scheme.

The Ahipp is now calling on housing secretary Yvette Cooper to extend the scheme to cover all remaining properties.

"I call upon the government to extend the rollout to the remainder of the housing stock," commented Mike Ockenden, director general of Ahipp.

"For Hips to do their job properly they need to be rolled out to all properties up and down chains of transactions.

"Not only will this speed up home buying and selling for all consumers, but it is fair for all.

"Presently anyone selling a home with three or more bedrooms and buying a one or two bedroom home is penalised by having to pay for the information in a HIP on the sale and also on the purchase."

Home information packs were designed to speed up the buying process, but have been maligned by some as an additional cost to an already expensive process.

Ahipp argue this is not the case, however, saying Hips actually save buyers money.

"Hips are particularly beneficial to first time buyers, saving them money on their first purchase, making it less stressful and removing one of the barriers to home ownership," continued Mr Ockenden.

"We have seen that the roll out of Hips to three and four bedroom homes has gone very well and I now strongly urge government to extend the implementation to all homes put on the market.

"In this way Hips can really start to do the job they have been brought in to do. It is time for all home buyers and sellers to benefit from this vital reform.

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