Estate agent update - from the government

Who needs a Pack?

Whoever is marketing the property is responsible for ensuring a valid Pack is available. In most cases, this will either be the seller or their estate agent.

Make sure your customers and their solicitors get a Home Information Pack.

What is in the Pack?

The documents that must be in the HIP are:

An Index listing the contents of the HIP
An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
A Sale Statement summarising the terms of sale
Evidence of title
Standard Searches
The Lease (where appropriate).

The seller can choose to include other permitted information (e.g. additional leasehold information, a Home Condition Report, guarantees, or additional
searches), if they feel this would improve the Pack.

We would argue that it does and these should be obtained.

The energy rating graphs from the EPC should be included in the written particulars or attached to them as a separate document.

You should ask for the graph to use on particulars, as soon as it is available.

In this context, ‘written particulars’ may be electronic or paper and contain any two of the following:

A photograph of the property
A room in the property
A plan of the property
A description of the room sizes.

Exemptions

These include:

Mixed use properties (e.g. a flat and shop being sold together)
Until April 2008, most newbuild properties (ie. those built under Part L of the Building Regulations 2006).

Compiling the Pack

You should make sure that both the Index and Sale Statement have been correctly completed, and that the documents are in the right order. The Index must appear first, followed by the EPC; the remaining documents can be in any order.

You should ensure all documents meet the necessary Regulations. However, it’s the responsibility of whoever provides a particular document to ensure the information is accurate.

How up-to-date do documents need to be?

Copies of Land Registry documents and any required searches should be no more than three months old at this point, and the EPC no more than a year old.

You are not legally required to update the Pack once marketing has started.

Can you still market a property without a Pack?

Homes can be put on the market without a Pack, providing all the necessary documents have been requested and paid for, or a commitment to pay for them has been made. The documents should be made available within 28 days. If marketing has started without a Pack, one should be made available as soon as the EPC has been received.

This will probably all change on 1 June 2008 when the first day marketing rule may apply. This could change as has been the case throughout the HIP integration and we will keep you updated.

Who can see the Pack?

Any potential buyers are entitled to receive a copy of the Pack, or any part of it, if they request it – and they should receive this within 14 days. There is no charge for this, but you can ask buyers to pay a charge to cover copying and postage. This doesn’t apply to electronic copies.

Sellers should see the Pack for their own home – to ensure it is accurate – and any other estate agents they have instructed should also have access.