A couple of weeks ago many of us expected that post 1 June, Home Information Packs (HIPs) launch day would have come and gone without a hitch and left us with a more efficient home buying process. No such luck. The past couple of weeks have seen a rollercoaster ride for HIPs and their implementation. So, where does the new legislation leave us now, and what is the future for these packs?
Over the last month there have been a few notable 11th hour attempts to halt H-Day, including a judicial review prompted by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and various debates based on the fact that there will not be enough energy assessors qualified to carry out Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) in time for launch day.
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The basic problem is that the government has failed to ensure that enough assessors have been trained and accredited to deal with HIPs implementation post 1 June. With only 520 fully accredited assessors , the government has fallen some way short of the 2,000 they initially estimated would be necessary.
In addition, RICS applied for a judicial review as a result of the government’s failure to ‘carry out proper consultation prior to implementing the new legislation to bring in HIPs’. They believed the government brought in the HIPs legislation without sufficient planning and consultation and said that implementation should therefore be halted until a proper review had taken place.
The RICS application for judicial review was the final nail in the coffin for the proposed 1 June launch and, just nine days before H-Day, a decision was made to change course yet again and postpone HIPs until 1 August.
In addition apart from this u-turn, when HIPs do come into play, two months later than expected, they will initially only be mandatory for larger properties – those with four or more bedrooms – partly because these are the least energy efficient properties of all, according to the government and partly because this will result in a requirement for fewer energy assessors at the outset. In addition, these homes can be put on the market as soon as a HIP is commissioned, and the mandatory EPC will temporarily have a longer shelf life of 12 months, as opposed to the previous six.
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Understandably, this new legislation has left a lot of people with questions: When will HIPs become mandatory for all properties? How long will EPCs be allowed to run for 12 months?
Will the legislation change again? In addition to these questions, the u-turn has shaken the faith of many HIP providers.
The government claim that HIPs will be phased in for smaller properties as and when more energy assessors are available to carry out EPCs. This could be problematic, as the uncertainty surrounding the constant u-turns has left many assessors holding off paying for their accreditation until they are certain there is a job waiting for them. Possibly having learnt from those who have lost earnings by training to become a home inspector – victims of the last government u-turn.
Many have questioned whether the government will ever make HIPs mandatory for the whole housing market, or if the phased system is just an easy way for them to slowly back out of the plan all together.
The government claim that they will assess HIPs towards the end of the year, giving them a chance to see how the first phase of the launch has progressed. By this time, hopefully, the government will be able to review the steps that are necessary to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and reform the home buying process. Therefore, they will be able to judge what further stages are needed to allow HIPs to be applied to all housing without having a negative effect on the housing market.
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Predictions are already rife that there will be havoc when the ‘phased’ system begins. Many estate agents are already claiming that they will advise customers looking to put larger houses on the market post 1 August, to market them as three-bedroom properties with extra ‘rooms’ to avoid the cost of a HIP. Quite why homeowners would choose to considerably devalue their property to avoid the cost of a £400 HIP is unclear. So, I doubt this will have much of an effect despite the current claims.
The last minute postponement of HIPs has left everyone who has worked toward a 1 June deadline facing uncertainty and a possible lack of earnings. We hope this postponement does not have an overly damaging effect on HIPs. Indeed, they could even be made more useful if the government will use this extra time to ensure that thorough training and adequate resources are in place to cope with the full launch.
The quicker the government launches HIPs across the housing market as a whole, the quicker we will be able to streamline the home buying process - especially for first time buyers who are set to be the main beneficiaries of their implementation. We can only hope that the government use this phased launch as a way to show how much HIPs will benefit the consumer and allow us all to plan for the new H-day of 1 August.
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