Home Information Packs
You must provide a Home Information Pack (HIP) when you put your house on the market.
The HIP includes an Energy Performance Certificate, copies of the title and a local authority search.
For an interim period, you can market your house without HIP provided you have commissioned one.
Before you take up your estate agent's offer to prepare the HIP for you, think about the following:
Most of the information in the HIP is legal information. Who knows more about the law - an estate agent or a solicitor?
Your estate agent may offer you a 'free' HIP - read the small print carefully. You will probably be locking yourself into a sole agency contract which means that if you want to change agents you will have to pay for the HIP.
Some estate agents may claim copyright in the HIP - if you decide to change estate agents, you will either have to pay a release fee on top of the fee for preparing the HIP or you may have to ask the new estate agent to prepare a new HIP.
The estate agent may try to steer you to instructing a conveyancer they have financial links with.
We can prepare your HIP and obtain the energy performance certificate; you can then take the HIP to any estate agent of your choosing.