From 1st January 2008, most homeowners in England and Wales will have to prepare a Home Information Pack before putting their home up for sale.
The Pack will bring together key information needed by buyers and sellers at the very start of the home-buying process.
When marketing begins, the Pack must contain at least the following:
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An index of contents
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A sale statement
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Evidence of title (for registered properties)
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An Energy Performance Certificate
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Searches and leasehold/commonhold documents (or proof that these have been commissioned).
The following documents are also compulsory, but can be added to the Pack later if there are delays in obtaining them:
Where any items are missing, the index should explain why. Where searches, leasehold or commonhold documents are missing, the seller needs to provide evidence that an agreement has been made to provide the documents as soon as practicable and within 28 days, except in exceptional circumstances. If this takes longer than 28 days, marketers will be expected to demonstrate that they have made all reasonable efforts and enquiries to obtain them.
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What do I need to do?
The person responsible for marketing a property must have a Home Information Pack in their possession while the property is on the market and provide a potential buyer with a copy of the Pack, or any document from it, on request and within the ‘permitted period’. These duties do not apply to sellers in cases where an estate agent is responsible for marketing the property.
The ‘permitted period’ is either 14 days following the request for copies, or, if later, the day on which a payment for copies is received.
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Where do I get a Pack?
You will usually need a Home Information Pack if you’re selling a private residential property on the open market, but if you want to check, see Do I need a Pack? As a seller, there are a number of options:
You can compile your own Pack by going directly to the organisations that provide the documents you'll need.
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How long does a Pack last for?
If a property is marketed continuously, there is no duty to update the Home Information Pack; the market decides whether the documents remain acceptable and up to date.
If marketing stops and then starts again, this would normally trigger the need to assemble a new Pack and to update the time-sensitive documents where necessary. However, the seller can carry on using the same Pack without the need to update any of the time-sensitive documents in the following circumstances:
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Where marketing stopped because the seller accepted an offer and wants to restart marketing because the sale has fallen through, provided that remarketing starts within one year of the date when marketing first began or, if later, 28 days of the sale falling through.
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Where marketing has stopped for any other reason, the seller may remarket the property with the same Pack provided that remarketing starts within one year of the date when marketing first began or, if later, 28 days of the date on which marketing stopped.
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Questions I need to ask
What should I do if searches or leasehold documents are still needed?
If any documents are still outstanding towards the end of the 28-day period, you may wish to look into the delay.
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Should the pack include a Home Condition Report?
A Home Condition Report could help you sell your property more quickly if it shows that it is in good condition, or because it highlights any problems straight away for potential buyers, avoiding nasty shocks later in the process.
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How much will it cost me?
The cost to sellers of Home Information Packs will be set by the market.
When you send a Pack to a prospective purchaser, you must not charge for the Pack itself, but you may make a reasonable charge for copying and posting it.
The only new cost in the buying and selling process is that sellers now have to pay for an Energy Performance Certificate, but this is a small fraction of the overall cost of buying and selling a home, and opens up the possibility of lower fuel bills and more energy-efficient homes in the future.
All buyers get the information for free – so the Pack will be of particular benefit to first-time buyers.
The overall costs of buying and selling a home will be similar to now, but will be spread more evenly between buyers and sellers.
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Compiling your own Pack:
If you’re marketing a property yourself, you must have a Home Information Pack, and make copies available to potential buyers.*
You can put one together yourself even if you’re using an estate agent.
If you produce your own, you will need to ensure that you have all of the documents listed in Content of Home Information Packs.
Contact a solicitor or conveyancer to arrange for the searches and legal documents you need. Alternatively, go to the appropriate local authority or a personal search company for the searches, and to the Land Registry for evidence of title. For the Energy Performance Certificate, you'll need to locate a Domestic Energy Assessor or a Home Inspector. If you also want a Home Condition Report, you'll need to appoint a Home Inspector.
* See also the New builds section. Potential buyers should usually be entitled to a copy of the Pack if they want it and are prepared to pay a reasonable fee for the copying costs, but the seller or estate agent can turn down requests without incurring a penalty where it is believed that:
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The person could not afford the property in question. The seller might, for example, want to exclude people who cannot demonstrate that they have arranged an ‘in principle’ mortgage
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The person making the request is not really interested in buying the property – for example, a journalist posing as a buyer to gain access to the Pack relating to a celebrity's home
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The potential buyer is not a person to whom the seller would wish to sell the property. The current position is that sellers can refuse to sell to a particular person, and do not have to give a reason. It should be emphasised, however, that this does not affect anyone's rights under legislation governing discrimination on the grounds of race, sex or disability.
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Where do I get the documents if I’m compiling my own Pack?
Some documents are compulsory and others optional – although it’s possible that some of the optional documents will be requested by the buyer’s conveyancer later in the process, so it might save time to get them now. Guidance on how to get different items is below.
Compulsory (‘required’) documents:
An index is a list of the Pack’s contents. An index form can be downloaded here.
A sale statement summarises the terms of sale. A sale statement can be downloaded here.
If your home is registered, evidence of title is provided by the official copies of the register and title plan, which can be obtained from the appropriate Land Registry office. A fee is payable, and such copies are acceptable as evidence in the courts. Alternatively, plain copies can be found on the Land Registry website.
If your home isn’t registered, you’ll need to supply an official result of a search of the index map (SIM) confirming this. This can be obtained from the appropriate Land Registry office. The result should be accompanied by whatever the documents you are relying on to show that you have title to the property – and therefore the right to sell it. For more information, visit the Land Registry.
A local search can be requested from the Local Land Charges department of the Local Authority that your property is in. Alternatively, you can use a channel of the National Land Information Service (NLIS) or a personal search company. Details of these companies will be in your local business listings.
A drainage and water search can be requested from your water supplier. Again, you can use a channel of the National Land Information Service or a personal search company. Details of these companies can be found in your local business listings.
An Energy Performance Certificate (compulsory) or Home Condition Report (optional) can be obtained by instructing a registered Home Inspector. You can find Home Inspectors through advertisements in your local business listings.
Predicted energy assessments are for homes that are not yet built. When a home is designed, a predicted energy rating based on the design is produced. This must achieve at least the target energy rating laid down for the home as specified by the energy efficiency requirements of building regulations.
Interim energy assessments are for new homes built in accordance with the energy efficiency requirements of the building regulations that came into force in April 2006. For these homes, until 1 October 2007, only the energy-efficiency and environmental-impact graphs will be required, and not the full Energy Performance Certificate.
There are three certification schemes for Home Inspectors. Their details are as follows:
BRE (Buildings Research Establishment)
www.breinspector.co.uk
01923 664 829
RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors)
www.rics.org/hips
0870 333 1600
SAVA (Surveyors and Valuers Accreditation Ltd)
www.sava-cs.org.uk
0870 837 650
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Optional (‘authorised’) documents:
You may also decide to include some or all of the following additional documents in your Pack. It is not necessary for you to do so, but it may increase the chances of a smoother sale if you do. The additional documents include:
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A Home Condition Report – an objective report on the condition of your home on which your buyer and their mortgage lender can rely
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Home-contents and home-use forms – forms completed by the seller on a range of matters of interest to potential buyers. Copies of these forms can be downloaded here.
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Any relevant guarantee and/or warranty
Additional searches, such as mining, environmental and flood-risk, will often be needed by buyers. It will save time if sellers provide these themselves where appropriate.
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Is your property leasehold or commonhold?
If your property is leasehold, you need to include a copy of the lease and any proposed changes to the lease.
The lease should have been provided to you when you purchased the property. If the property is registered, information on how to obtain an official, court-admissible copy (along with the associated fee) will be available from the Land Registry. Plain copies of the lease may also be available.
You also need to include the following:
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Information on service charges
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Details of the current lessor and, if different, whoever is responsible for managing the property
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The management rules
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Details of any proposed works to the property or the building in which it is located.
All of these documents should have been provided to you by the landlord or manager of your building. If you’ve lost or mislaid any of them, you should be able to get copies from the landlord or manager – although you’ll probably have to pay a fee.
If your property is commonhold, you need to include the following information:
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Official copies of the individual register and title plan relating to the common parts and the commonhold community statement referred to in the register. These can be obtained from the appropriate Land Registry office. A fee is payable, and such copies are acceptable as evidence in the courts. Information regarding how to obtain official copies and the fees payable can be obtained from the Land Registry website
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Apart from those described in the commonhold community statement, any regulations made for the purpose of managing the commonhold and any proposed changes to them
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Most recent requests for financial contributions in respect of the property
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Details of the managing agent and any other person responsible for managing the commonhold
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Details of any proposed works to the property or the common parts
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New builds:
Sellers of newly built homes will have to provide a Home Information Pack for potential buyers. As most new homes are sold ‘off plan’ before they’re built, there might be differences between the Pack for a new home and one provided for an older home.
For example, depending on what stage of construction has been reached when the property is sold, the title information and searches might not be site specific, and could cover an area wider than the site of the property being sold.
Sellers may also provide a predicted assessment of the energy efficiency of the property: a full Energy Performance Certificate should be provided to the buyer when the home is completed.
AllReddiHome New Build HIPs for LOCAL Developers and Builders
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Do I need a Pack?
You do not need a Home Information Pack for:
Properties where there is no marketing (e.g. sale to member of the family)
Non-residential properties
Seasonal and holiday accommodation
Mixed sales (e.g. shop with flat)
Right to buy sales
Sales of portfolios of properties
Properties not being sold with completely vacant possession
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