Tories May Leave Home Information Packs Alone

Oh dear chap, way off target with that idea. Although Owen Inskip made some comments about maybe keeping HIPs, he was slapped down by Grant Shapps very swiftly who has stated that he made his Conference speech affirming the policy to scrap HIPs. It even appears on the Tory policy page here: http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Where_we_stand/Housing.aspx

and as he told Estate Agent Today: “We are scrapping HIPs, as per my speech at the party conference. We will look at anything useful to come out of the HIPs fiasco.”

http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/News/Story/?title=Tories%20WILL%20ditch%20HIPs%2C%20promises%20Shapps&storyid=1107&type=news_features

Yep, I think we'll see rebadged HIPs, without searches in which will cheer up the Law Society and the NAEA but naturally will upset the personal search companies. If the Property Information Questionnaire becomes embedded in the process next year, then at least the HIP will have something useful in! Problem is, every time an element is taken out of the HIP, the compilation costs can be reduced, this means the larger players are obliged to run on ever lower margins to compete with one-man band Pack Providers to compete.

As we have already seen in the industry, low cost = low quality. The HIP is not an process that can be fully automated, properties are complicated and expensive things, and the paperwork that proves this is not something to be given to idiots to manage.

The only thing worrying the short term 'fast-buck' pack providers right now is the access to deferred payment facilities. With HIP Payment Services pulling out and the credit crunch taking its toll, life is much harder for lenders right now, and with agents not really tracking where sellers move to, trying to get hold of payment 9-10 months down the line is proving more tricky and expensive than one might have thought.