Hips To Be Scrapped Under Tories

I always thought they sounded like a pointless admin to me (not that I’ve ever looked at them or had to deal with them) – how much do they typically add onto the cost of buying/selling? And who gets the money from that? Was that just another stealth tax?

Indeed, finally someone speaking sense at last. One more failed policy from a failed government.

There are many options regarding arranging a HIP, but as Zoe rightly says they are compulsory and have been since April this year. The main exception being if there is no marketing done – there are other exceptions, but not for the mass market. Oh and don’t forget the Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) – a recent bolt on / addendum to the HIP. I’m not sure if they will be entirely scrapped or just branded as something else, a kind of ‘HIP Replacement’, and we have all heard about the waiting times and recovery periods for them!! Lets hope not, eh?

A point to consider is that if you are buying a property and require a mortgage, then the lender is going to insist that a Basic valuation is carried out as a minimum regardless of a HIP. The HIP mostly contains information that your legal team will find out anyway during the course of their conveyancing work, but I suppose it’s nice to have it up front and to know some other information.

When buying a home it’s important to know about the 3 types of survey available – a basic valuation, a home buyers report and a full structural survey. It’s the buyers responsibility to check exactly what they are buying and unfortunately a HIP will not contain details of whether the property has been underpinned or other structural works have been carried out.

HIPs are more like a prospectus, an introduction if you like, they contain some nice facts, but at the end of the day, if you really want to know what you are about to buy, you need a good surveyor and a good conveyancing firm!!