By Catherine Baksi


Solicitors have proved astute at fending off rivals to provide home information packs (HIPs), new research seen by the Gazette shows.



Almost half of the packs are being prepared by solicitors themselves, the study showed, providing an extra revenue stream for lawyers.



The survey of more than 2,000 solicitors found that 47% were preparing packs themselves.



But HIPs have still not fully taken off, despite being rolled out nationally in December last year, according to the research. Some 87% of solicitors said they had not received or completed a pack on every instruction when acting for the buyer, despite the packs being compulsory.



When acting for buyers, solicitors demonstrated a reluctance to rely on personal searches contained in HIPs, with more than 50% indicating that they replaced them with official local authority searches.



David Kempster, marketing manager at SearchFlow, which conducted the research with the Law Society, said: 'Far from being the threat to their businesses that many predicted, HIPs may actually provide an extra revenue stream for solicitors.



'They are clearly taking the opportunity to take ownership of HIPs. Many have put in place the technology and processes needed to assemble the packs.'



He added that solicitors were forming partnerships with estate agents, 'rather than viewing them as diverting trade.'



Law Society Vice-President Paul Marsh said the results showed how well lawyers had engaged with HIPs.



But he added: 'The anxiety is that solicitors providing HIPs will be pushed out of the market by other HIP providers who are paying referral fees to estate agents.'



The findings came as the government announced its intention to allow incomplete personal searches to be included in packs providing they are backed by insurance beyond 31 March.



The government also published its long-awaited research on the voluntary HIP area trials, which followed the progress of sales in eight areas between November 2006 and April 2007. The results showed that 55% of properties using HIPS were sold, 20% were withdrawn from the market and 24% remained on the market.