Thank you for the Gazette's Guide to Home Information Packs, which stated that property 'can be marketed without an energy performance certificate after 14 days as long as the certificate is in place within 28 days of marketing'. Sadly, the disruption to the market likely to be caused by HIPs is, I fear, as nothing compared to the operation of regulation 6 of the catchily-titled Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007.


Buried - as bad news tends to be - in the week of Tony Blair's departure, this obscure legislation requires any property sales particulars, whether written or online, issued to prospective buyers to either include the energy asset rating (colloquially known as the 'fridge mark') or attach a copy of the energy performance certificate.



Thus, it potentially introduces an even longer delay before marketing residential property than the HIPs regulations do. This provision appears to have crept under the media radar (Michael Garson's article being an honourable exception).



Paul Heritage-Redpath, solicitor, Computer Software Group, Watchfield, Swindon