Home information packs

Plans to force homeowners to provide an information pack before selling their property were being debated in the Lords on Wednesday.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers were backing an amendment to the Housing Bill which would make the controversial packs voluntary.

However, ministers have warned that a voluntary scheme "would not work" since not all homeowners would be willing to pay the upfront £650 estimated costs.

Stakeholder Response: The Council of Mortgage Lenders

A spokesman for the Council of Mortgage Lenders said: "A voluntary scheme would add unnecessary cost and complication to the mortgage application process."

Stakeholder Response: The Traditional Housing Bureau

Barry Holmes, executive director of the THB, said: "The THB has responded with concern to suggestions by Tory peers that the home information pack, included as part of the Housing Bill, would not help the buying process.

"The home information pack will give potential buyers basic, but vital, information on the property before they have committed time and money to the process of negotiating an offer and commissioning a survey.

 

"An example of the information immediately available is the construction method used to build a house.A purchaser will want to know whether they are looking at a solid brick and block built house, or one based on a timber or steel frame. You can't tell just by looking at the house: without the home information pack the buyer would have to commission a survey.

 

"Our homes are the most important financial investment that we will ever make, it seems ludicrous to deny consumers the opportunity to be properly informed particularly in terms of the construction method of the home which has direct relevance to the durability, future adaptability of the property and whether it will stand up to long term climatic change.

 

"We can't see how this would fail to speed up the purchase process – we believe that there would be less failures of the buying process simply because the buyer would be in possession of vital information before they made the first move.  Clearly many purchasers will then go on to verify the information for themselves, but they will be starting from a more informed point.

 

"The THB is campaigning hard for the house purchaser’s right to know and is urging ministers not to abandon the concept but to ensure that the home information pack remains an integral part of the Housing Bill."

 

Stakeholder Response: Which?

 

A spokesman for Which? said: "Which? agrees with the Council of Mortgage Lenders that a voluntary system for home information packs is unworkable. As most sellers are buyers too, it makes sense that if a seller has put together a pack, they should benefit from having one in place when they look to buy their next property.

 

"Which? is surprised that there is this reticence towards allowing people to make decisions based on information and really cannot understand how provision of information is 'controversial'. A home is the most expensive purchase a person will ever make, and yet we make these decisions on little or no information.

 

"When Which? polled people on the packs, 82 per cent of people thought it would be very useful to have a HIP. In a follow-up survey Which? explored how people felt about paying for the pack and asked them that whether having to pay would be a problem. Some 68 per cent of people still felt that a pack would be very useful, which is a significant endorsement of the system.

 

"Which? believes that having a HIP in place will speed up transactions as all the information you currently get after you make an offer will be contained in the pack, and people, solicitors included, tell us that what really slows down the system is searches."

 

Stakeholder Response: National Association of Estate Agents

 

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the NAEA, said: "The NAEA supports improvements to the house sale process but we are concerned that aspects of the Housing Bill are to the detriment of the consumer.

 

"Our major concern is to allow homes to be marketed from day one. The proposals as they stand will mean that an agent cannot even show someone around a property until its HIP has been compiled.

 

"That’s absurd and we hope the government will accept an amendment to allow first day marketing to take place while a pack is being assembled and realise the detrimental effect this will have on the UK's housing market."

 

Stakeholder Response: Construction Products Association

 

Chris Bennett, external affairs executive for the Construction Products Association, said: "The Association believes that a requirement to provide a Home Condition Pack to buyers would prove valuable in informing them of the energy profile of the property and could be used by the sellers as a Unique Selling Point where energy efficiency measures have been introduced.

 

"This new degree of transparency would encourage those selling their houses to improve their property's energy efficiency performance which would help achieve the government's aim of improving the efficiency of the UK's housing stock."