In December 2008 Margaret Beckett made an announcement in the House of Commons in relation to the transitional provisions which were due to come to an end in December 2008. In essence these transitional provisions will continue until 6th April 2009. From that date the following changes will occur to the HIP Regulations:-

Expanding the HIP Content:
From the 6th April all HIP’s must include a Property Information Questionnaire. In essence this will give Buyers more information about the property. In relation to Leasehold properties, the Property Information Questionnaire will also include a summary of the Leasehold arrangements.

Making HIP’s available sooner:
In essence all Agents will need to have the legal element of the HIP and EPC in place before properties can be marketed. There will then be a 28 day grace for the searches to be made available thereafter. As you can see the first day marketing has now been brought back and this will come into effect from 6th April.

Searches:
As some of you are aware personal searches are backed by insurance for information that the Local Authority do not make available. Due to the changes in the Local Search Regulations this information should now be made available and therefore full searches should now be included in all HIP’s from 6th April.

As you can see the Government are pushing forward with the HIP Regulations and it seems they have decided that HIP’s are here to stay.