However, legal experts believe that the cost to the public could be reduced if solicitors were appointed as their HIP providers.
Richard Barnett senior partner of Barnetts Solicitors and a member of the Law Society HIPS Task Force and PISCES representative on the Office of Deputy Prime Minister’s HIPs Implementation Task Force argues [in a personal capacity]:
“Solicitors are already well placed to provide the legal pack which will be required to be placed in a HIP and have the systems in existence. In essence the provision of packs would be a seamless join to the conveyancing process. There is also a matter of consumer confidence.
“Our own initial research has demonstrated that consumers would prefer to obtain a pack from a trusted and regulated source. HIP providers will have to go a long way to generate that trust as they enter the market from a standing start and more importantly there has been no indication as yet that they will be properly regulated
“The introduction of HIPs has created a multi million pound industry and many HIP providers are gearing up to the implementation in 2007.
“HIP providers are already actively competing and investing significantly in marketing their products and there is only one person who will bear the brunt of this investment – the consumer.”
