ROLL-OUT: housing minister cites 'unusual market conditions'


As the government this week denied that the full roll-out of home information packs (HIPs) had been delayed, the Law Society has claimed that unaddressed problems of leasehold properties and the reliability of personal searches are causing the hold-up.



Vice-President Paul Marsh's comments followed a speech made by housing minister Iain Wright, at the annual conference of the Association of Home Information Pack Providers. Mr Wright told delegates that 'unusual market conditions' - including interest rate changes, house prices, stock market uncertainty, the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Northern Rock issue - had put people off marketing their homes.



Mr Wright added: 'We are monitoring the housing market carefully to determine what impact recent financial market uncertainty has had and to confirm that HIPs were rolled out smoothly to larger properties.' A timetable for the next steps would be set in due course, he added.



Many in the property industry anticipated the new home sellers' packs would become compulsory for all new properties coming on to the market from this autumn, once there were sufficient domestic energy assessors.



Mr Marsh said the reason HIPs could not be extended to the remaining property market was that the government had realised there were big problems with obtaining leasehold documentation, and with the quality and reliability of personal searches.



Derek Lithgow, business and development planning director for property services company and HIP provider MoveMachine, said opportunistic management companies were taking advantage of HIPs. But he suggested that the packs present an opportunity to improve the leasehold situation in the same way they had affected the search industry, where he said market forces and pressures on local authorities had resulted in improved efficiency and reduced search costs.



Catherine Baksi