By Catherine Baksi


The Law Society this week accused the government of presiding over 'a complete shambles' after it delayed the introduction of home information packs (HIPs) until 1 August and said they will initially only be required for four-bedroom properties or larger.



Housing minister Ruth Kelly also announced that sellers will be able to market their properties as soon as a HIP has been commissioned, rather than waiting until the pack has been put together. The regulations will also be amended to allow energy performance certificates (EPCs) to be up to a year old when a property is put up for sale, extending the current three-month limit.



The government was forced to make the climb-down following a judicial review of EPCs by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The judge had issued an order preventing EPCs from being included in HIPs from 1 June until a court had fully considered the RICS application.



Ms Kelly said the government did not believe it would be practical to introduce HIPs without the EPCs. She admitted that the long-running uncertainty over implementation had had an impact on the number of energy assessors, so HIPs would be phased in, beginning with larger properties where there was the greatest potential to make energy savings, before extending them to smaller properties.



Describing the situation as 'a complete shambles', Law Society Deputy Vice-President Paul Marsh said: 'The government has turned the whole process of HIPs into a farce. Its consultation with stakeholders has fallen seriously short of what we would expect in a genuine consultation exercise for something as important as this for consumers.



'This is a complete turnaround at the 11th hour. Why did the government not listen to our concerns and meet with us months ago instead of waiting until eight days before implementation? We have constantly told the government that HIPs are fundamentally flawed.'



David Marsden, partner and head of the property department at Hertfordshire firm Matthew Arnold & Baldwin, said that, despite grave concerns over HIPs, his firm had followed government guidance to be prepared for their introduction on 1 June and spent thousands of pounds doing so.



'To have them delayed at the last minute is ridiculous,' Mr Marsden said. 'There have been many opportunities over the past year when the government could have done this which would have enabled businesses to plan much better.'