The Packs will cost around £600 plus VAT. Most of this is not new cost as buyers and sellers incur them under the current arrangements. Included in this cost is the Home Condition Report, which is expected to be around £300, for an average home, plus VAT.
The dry run will ensure that mandatory HIPs have a smooth landing — to help secure a seamless transition. Phase 1 of the dry run is already underway with an ever growing number of conveyancers, estate agents and others providing HIPs on a voluntary basis. This activity will increase as we move towards implementation, and we envisage that by the second half of 2006 all the components of the HIP process will be available for use.
More details about the dry run will be published soon.
We expect Home Information Packs to have a positive impact i.e. a more efficient and cost effective market where costs are shared more fairly between buyer and seller.
Major players are now investing heavily in Home Information Pack systems and intend to market these well in advance of packs becoming mandatory. This means sellers and buyers will not have to wait until June 2007 before they can benefit from packs, and there is less likelihood of a ‘spike’ of properties coming to the market immediately before implementation of the mandatory scheme.
The Home Condition Report will be an objective report on the condition of the property that buyers, sellers and lenders will have a legal right to rely on. Home inspectors will have to have suitable insurance.
Only inspectors qualifying under a certification scheme approved by the Secretary of State will be able to prepare home condition reports. The scheme will be responsible for monitoring and auditing inspectors’ work. This will be robust to ensure that standards are maintained. If inspectors fail to maintain the correct standard or act in a way that is partial to one party contrary to the rules of the scheme, their certification will be removed, along with that their ability to produce Home Condition Reports.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has also announced that 1,750 home inspectors have trained or are currently training to become qualified home inspectors, and that a significant number in the pipeline were simply waiting for the Home Information Pack implementation date to be announced.
For more information about training for the home inspector qualification please visit
www.dclg.info/doc?id=13
An estimated 5,000 to 7,400 home inspectors are likely to be required by 1 June 2007. This estimate is based upon assumptions around the numbers of Home Condition Reports required and home inspector productivity levels, and has been developed in liaison with the industry.
Details of the assumptions are described in the full report, which will be published by CLG shortly. The report also highlights the need to continuously monitor and revisit the range estimates as more evidence on the assumptions and home inspector working patterns.
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