I would like to share one of my experiences in respect of home information packs (HIPs). Clients for whom we have acted for decades (and whose deeds we hold) approached us to prepare a HIP in preparation for the sale of the property they had owned for 30 years. We had a general discussion with them and confirmed that we would be happy to provide that service.


The clients went to talk to some estate agents and eventually selected the firm to instruct. Agents persuaded them to use their factory provider of HIPs. We pointed out to the client that we held the deeds and the title was unregistered, which would give the factory a difficulty. A fortnight or so later, we were contacted by the factory to ask for an Epitome of Title, which we provided at no charge, albeit through gritted teeth.



Agents successfully marketed the property and found a buyer, at 20% above the asking price. We received details and submitted a contract. About a fortnight later, the HIP was eventually received from the factory. The Epitome of Title we had so carefully prepared was reduced in size, so that many of the older documents were impossible to read. All the plans had been reduced in size, thereby destroying their scale, and none of them were coloured. The local authority search is a personal search which we, like all other firms in our immediate area, will not accept.



By the time the HIP appeared, we had submitted a contract to the buyer's solicitors. As expected, the buyer's solicitor confirmed that the personal search provided in the HIP was unacceptable and our clients

had to pay for another (proper) local search.



This HIP was completely worthless and, to add insult to injury, the HIP provider charged our clients an extra £100 because the property was unregistered, when we actually prepared the Epitome of Title at no charge.



As the requirement to have a HIP in place at the first point of marketing approaches, we hope that agents who have these arrangements with factories will finally understand that they are not beneficial to them, their clients, or to the solicitors trying to process the transaction.



If we accept that we are stuck with HIPs, then I still believe there is a great opportunity for those good, efficient local firms of solicitors who can produce quality HIPs quickly.



Daniel Sproull, Sproull, Bodmin