Last week's announcement that home information packs (HIPs) are now being delayed until August and will only then
apply to 'large homes' simply beggars belief (see [2007] Gazette, 24 May, 1).



It might be amusing were it not for the amount of time that we are having to expend dealing with this nonsense. Is there really nobody in Ruth Kelly's department with the required nous? If the government really believes that the energy certificates need to be 'gold plated' (the European regulations provide for ten-year certificates as opposed to three months), then so be it.



All that is required, however, is for a certificate to be delivered to the Land Registry, in the same way as with SDLT5, to the effect that the requisite energy certificate has indeed been obtained in conjunction with the sale of the property, such certificate to be given by the purchaser's solicitors and either in the AP1 or in an appropriate letter.



HIPs themselves, which anybody with any understanding of the conveyancing process can clearly see are a complete waste of time and money, can then be consigned to the scrapheap once and for all.



Richard Hornby, Lynch Hall & Hornby, Harrow, Middlesex