Stephen Foden, CEO of Spring Move, said lenders currently have the belief that the advent of the packs will do very little for them directly and are therefore, not engaging the market.
Foden explained: “I’m surprised lenders have not looked at the Energy Performance Certificate more closely as if they included sections in their handbook, there would be no need for HIPs. However, they have the opportunity to link other products to it, such as home improvement loans, which would be a way of increasing their product holding. But HIPs don’t do much for them so they’ve gone a bit quiet recently.”
Many lenders have expressed caution towards HIPs, especially after the removal of a mandatory Home Condition Report from the pack earlier this year.
However, Alan Dring, sales director at eConveyancer, believed lenders have started in the last month to react and put the wheels in motion.
“Increasingly over the last month, lenders have been starting to approach us but they haven’t been doing enough and I think the turn of the year will focus minds."
A spokesperson for Halifax, said. “We will be providing HIPs through our estate agency branches and will announce our HIPs offering in due course. Our aim is to provide the complete home moving service. HIPs will become a legal requirement and all lenders will have to prepare to incorporate them into their system.”
