Commencing on 1st August 2007 home owners in England and Wales will need to arrange for a Home Information Pack (HIP) to be prepared before putting their homes up for sale. The HIP will contain all the relevant documentation needed to sell a house and a voluntary Home Condition Report.

The Government is introducing HIP's to improve the process of buying and selling a home. Currently this can be a stressful and costly experience which is prone to delay and failure.

Benefits of Home Information Packs

The HIP will bring together at the very start of the process important information which at present is collected piecemeal in the days and weeks after an offer has been accepted. This will:

• help the seller decide on a realistic asking price;
• give the buyer the essential information needed to make a well-informed offer and proceed with the purchase;
• greatly reduce the risk of the terms having to be renegotiated due to later disclosure of information, e.g. about any defects;
• shorten the period of uncertainty between offer acceptance and exchange of contracts, thereby reducing the window in which gazumping and other problems can occur.

If you are selling your home now you should consider commissioning a Home Information Pack to help sell your home faster.

For further information on HIP's

read the independent report by