Everything about Home Information Packs (HIPS)

With compulsory home information packs due next year, we conduct a survey of their value to buyers and sellers. Jill Insley reports Home information packs are widely expected to be a good thing for first-time buyers, but a mini-trial for The Observer indicates that sellers will also benefit from the new schemes.

I'm getting pretty fed up with the constant criticism of home information packs by the likes of the National Association of Estate Agents, the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the Law Society and, undoubtedly the most ill-informed of all, the Conservative party. Week after week they moan that Hips will push up the cost of selling your home, put sellers off, distort house prices and make it easier for buyers to gazunder.

The Government's planned home information packs, which it claims will speed up housing transactions and stop money being wasted on surveys, were condemned last night as "expensive, deficient and dangerous".

HOUSE-SELLERS face being forced to pay for a second £800 home information pack if they take their property off the market, even for only a month, it emerged last night.

Government is taking action to transform home buying and selling in England and Wales and boost consumer rights and benefits, Ministers announced today.

On the day the Government unveiled the detailed contents of Home Information Packs, Housing Minister Yvette Cooper and Consumer Affairs Minister Ian McCartney set out a three-way strategy to overhaul home buying in England and Wales, involving Home Information Packs, local searches, e-conveyancing and stronger redress against estate agents and others when things go wrong.

Energy ratings similar to consumer-friendly fridge ratings will have to be produced for every home bought and sold in England and Wales from next June, the Government announced today. Housing Minister Yvette Cooper today launched the new Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which will be an essential part of the Home Information Packs to be introduced next year.