Burnett Barker Solicitors - A little background

Home Information Packs

A Home Information Pack, or “HIP”, contains information about a property being sold (such as a sale statement, searches and evidence of title).

Pretty much all properties marketed for sale from 14 December 2007 in England and Wales need a Home Information Pack.

Any property that was already on the market on the relevant commencement date (i.e. 1 August 2007 for sales of homes with four or more bedrooms; 10 September 2007 for those with three or more bedrooms and 14 December for all properties) does not need to have a HIP.

What’s in a Home Information Pack

There are two types of documents included in a HIP:

Compulsory documents

  • Home Information Pack index
  • Energy Performance Certificate
  • Sale Statement
  • Standard Searches
  • Evidence Of Title

Optional documents

  • Home Condition Report
  • Legal Summary
  • Home use/contents form
  • Any non-standard searches that could speed up the sale of a property

For Sellers

The HIP is intended to reduce the likelihood of any nasty surprises in the selling process – enabling buyers to make more informed decisions about their purchase earlier in the selling process, hopefully reducing delays and sales falling through.

We have everything needed to produce your HIP for you.

The benefit of a Burnett Barker HIP rather than one from your estate agent is that you are not tied to a particular agent with our HIP. If, however, you have agreed with your selling agent that they will sort out your HIP, we are still quite happy to act for you in your sale and can use the information in your agent’s HIP.

For Buyers

If you are buying a property, you should ask the selling agent for a copy of the HIP. The HIP provides essential information about a property you are considering buying – free of charge – to reduce the chances of any unwelcome hiccups later on in the buying process.

More information about HIPs can be found on the government website at www.homeinformationpacks.gov.uk.

Whether selling or buying, we take the worry out of HIPs. So please get in touch with us. We’re ready and waiting to help...