Hip view (Home Information Packs and Energy Performance Certificates EPC

No Sale No Fee HIPs – Free HIP if your Home Does Not Sell Within 9 Months

No Sale No Fee Home Information Packs are now available from Pali via Hipview.

Pali have been offering a deferred payment option now on Home Information Packs ordered through Hipview for over 12 months. You can now add an insurance policy to the deferred payment solution meaning that should the property remain on the market in excess of 9 months the HIP won’t cost a penny.

If you or your client choose the No Sale No Fee option when ordering the Home Information Pack the only initial cost will be £30. If the property sells within 9 months the HIP is payable on completion, but if it remains on the market for longer than nine months then any direct costs incurred for the HIP can be claimed back and what’s more, the HIP should still be valid.

For more information please telephone 0151 691 1170 or email nick@paliltd.com

Terms and Conditions:

There are some key conditions to the policy which should noted:
• The HIP Provider/ Estate Agent must note any recommendation to alter the sale price of the property made by the Estate Agent and Seller
• The Seller must comply with any advice given by the Estate Agent to reduce the price of the property and may not reject two or more offers within 90% of the asking price
• The HIP Provider/Estate Agent must note the rejection of any offer made on the property
• The property must be continually marketed during the period of insurance
• The property must be kept in a good state of repair
• The Property is a single private residential house or flat which is build complete at the order date.
• The Home Information Pack for which this cover is required has been produced in accordance with the relevant Home Information Pack Regulations.
• The Seller is not aware of any matter which could lead to a claim under the Policy.

A full set of Terms and Conditions will be provided with the Insurance Guarantee and are also available on request, or by clicking here.

For more information please contact your local Pali office or email: nick@paliltd.com or telephone 0151 691 1170 or visit our webpage.

There has been a lot of talk from the Conservative party about scrapping Home Information Packs if and when they are elected.

Pali has been providing Conveyancing Searches to Solicitors and Property Professionals since 1999. With the introduction of Home Information Packs in 2007 their client base expanded to include HIP Providers, Estate Agents and members of the public. The website Hipview was set up to assist people in the ordering, tracking, viewing and storing of Home Information Packs.

While the company has changed to accommodate the new legislation of the Home Information Packs, it is not reliant on them. However it is Pali’s opinion that they should not be scrapped, but instead worked on to improve them and fulfil the function they were originally put in place to do.

The main objectives of the HIPs should be:

• To give potential buyers information upfront on properties they are considering purchasing.
• To speed up the conveyancing process.
• To cut down on duplication of reports being purchased by multiple potential buyers.
• To give all interested parties information of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, indicating where financial savings on fuel bills can be made and reducing climate change.

Taking these points into consideration, improvements could be made certainly on the first two. The Home Information Pack was originally intended to include a condition rating on the property in the form of a Home Condition Report. In Pali’s opinion this was the most important and useful element of the pack for potential purchasers. When the Labour Government decided to make this document optional it seriously damaged the pack. If the Home Condition Report, or another similar survey was re-introduced as a required component, in Pali’s opinion, the packs would be of much more interest to potential purchasers and save hundreds of pounds on wasted surveys.
Home Information Packs have undoubtedly all ready speeded up the conveyancing process, however it doesn’t go far enough. With the implementation of an Exchange Ready HIP, the conveyancing process could be much quicker. The Exchange Ready HIP would have a lot more information added to the HIP which would normally be enquiries made by the purchasers solicitor once sale was agreed. Other documents can also be included such as fixtures and contents forms, draft contract, the Property Information Form etc. It would be advisable that the Exchange Ready pack be produced in association with a Solicitor, however AHIPP are currently working on a form, the PDQ, which would cover most of this information.

Simply implementing both of the above points would make the Home Information Pack a much more worthwhile product, but they are by no means the only improvements which could be made. What is certain is scrapping the HIPs completely would be a mistake, with a little more work all of the time and effort which has brought the packs to this point would not be wasted. In scrapping them and going back to the drawing board the added expense would be phenomenal. One thing most people are agreed on is the process buying and selling of property needs improving and information upfront seems to be the best way to achieve this goal.

Your comments are welcome.

CALL 0151 691 1170

Need to get your property on the market fast and don’t want to be slowed down by the Home Information Pack regulations? Pali can supply you with the HIP components that must be in place before a residential property can be marketed very quickly.

A property cannot be legally marketed until the following elements of a Home Information Pack are in place:
Index
Sale Statement
Property Information Questionnaire
Land Registry Office Copy & Title Plan (Registered Properties)
Search of the Index Map Register (Unregistered Properties)
Energy Performance Certificate.

Pali’s online systems mean that the majority of the above will be in place usually within an hour or so of the order being taken. As long as the Energy Assessor is able to gain access to the property immediately there should be no reason there is a delay in marketing your home.

Orders for Home Information Packs can be placed by CLICKING HERE or telephoning 0151 691 1170.

Telephone 0151 691 1170

The current economic climate has caused many companies to go out of business. Home Information Pack providers have been affected by this more so as they are linked directly to the property industry and many were new companies set up when the HIP regulations were introduced.

The result of these HIP companies closing has been that many property vendors have either lost or never received the Home Information Packs they have paid for.

Pali have been providing conveyancing searches, the core elements of the HIP, since 1999. In 2007 Pali launched their website Hipview which enabled Hips to be ordered and stored in one place.

Hipview is available for anyone to use. If you have recently purchased a HIP, or are considering doing so, be sure to insist that your HIP Provider used Hipview to store the final product. As all of the HIPs on Hipview are stored and archived on secure servers located in the North West of England, you can rest assured that if your HIP Provider disappears, your HIP won’t. Every Home Information Pack stored on Hipview has a unique security PIN (Property Identification Number) and URL, for quick and easy access.

Alternatively you can order your full Home Information Pack from Pali. Simply Click Here or telephone
0151 691 1170.

The Information Commissioners Office has been deciding whether or not the information required for the local authority search in a Home Information Pack (Hip) or for the purchaser in the conveyancing process when buying a property or land is environmental. This is a very important issue as it reflects on the potential price of the Hip. It also has a bearing on the access to the information afforded to private search companies which have been suffering restrictions and high charges imposed by council in an effort to restrict competition from the private sector.

The ICO has decided that most if not all information required in the local search is environmental and therefore access should be free.

IPSA the trade body representing ninety five percent of private search companies has been very active in lobbying both in UK and Europe to achieve this result. Also solicitors Taylor Emmett have lodged two test cases with the ICO and Pali, Ltd also has two cases lodged for consideration which will have effected the decision arrived at by the ICO.

Christian Lister, Chairman of IPSA has issued a summary of the ICO ruling which makes interesting reading. See below. It remains to be seen how obstructive the local authorities will be but history shows us that they do not generally take notice of rules that don’t suit them.

Essentially the ICO guidance confirms the following:

• The majority of the information provided by local authorities in response to property search enquiries is likely to be environmental information as defined by the EIR.
• The charging provisions in the CPSR (Local Authorities (England)(Charges for Property Searches) Regulations 2008) do not apply to environmental information.
• Under the EIR a public authority should accept an applicant’s request to inspect the information.
• Environmental information that is inspected by the applicant cannot be charged for.
• Public authorities cannot use the publication scheme provisions of the FOIA to charge for environmental information contained in property search records.
• Information that is not environmental should be considered under the FOIA. In such cases, the CPSR can form the basis for any charging.

With regard to non-environmental property search information the ICO have said “Although much of the information provided in response to property enquiries will be environmental in nature, there may be some which is not… However, we recognise that for an authority to consider each CON29 question in order to establish whether the information is subject to the EIR or the FOIA has the potential to be an overly bureaucratic process. In light of this guidance, an authority may therefore wish to adopt a policy of making all the property search information available on the basis of the principles set out in the EIR.”

The introduction of energy performance certificates in Scotland has been thrown into confusion after it emerged that separate government-backed energy rating software can produce radically different results for the same building

The two approved applications are the dynamic simulation model (DSM) and the simplified building energy model(SBEM).

Software producer Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) said a hospital tested with both approved packages got an E rating under the SBEM system and a C with DSM.

David McEwan, UK manager of IES, said: “It’s only a matter of time before people say: ‘Why should we get an E when we could move up two grades?’”

Public buildings in Scotland have had to display EPCs since 4 January.

Interest Rates Slashed Again.

The Bank Of England has cut the rate of interest again today by 0.5% to bring it to its lowest ever rate of 1%. In a statement by the Bank Of England said the global economy was in the throes of “a severe and synchronised downturn”.

Bank’s Recent Rate Decisions

 Sky News Money Panel member Ian McCafferty, the CBI’s chief economic adviser, welcomed the cut.

He said: “This drop in rates should support business confidence and, when added to recent cuts of the past couple of months and the fall in the pound, provides a very significant stimulus to the ailing economy.”

If passed on in its entirety, the cut will save someone with a £150,000 mortgage around £40 a month.

People who are more heavily mortgaged with a £250,000 home loan will be £66 a month better off.

But around 300,000 customers with tracker mortgages will not benefit from the cut, as so-called ‘collars’ have already kicked in on their loans, meaning the rate they pay cannot fall any further.

The real question on my lips is will the lenders pass this on? Will they start to offer fixed rate mortgages that are below 4.99% for the duration of the fixed period?

Hopefully the Home Information Pack market will now increase as more and more houses come on to the market and mortgages become cheaper.

I read in a recent post on Yahoo! About a disgruntled gentleman who flew virgin Atlantic. For those of you that have read the letter will know that it is probably the best complaint letter ever written. The letter was originally published by The Telegraph on the 30^th Jan 2009.

What was of particular interest to me was the bit about the cookie, the description of a back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac. The story has been blogged all over and has made it on to the Sky News, Money Saving Expert and has a following on Twitter!

Well folks I have heard from a reliable source that the letter was indeed a hoax from Virgin Atlantic’s PR company WCRS.

Well I don’t know about you but I originally thought “that’s terrible! I am never flying with Virgin!” however it has got everyone talking.

What does all this have to do with HIP’S ? or indeed PALI ? well the answer is not much! I sent the email around the office and the franchisee’s contributed to the illusion that this letter was indeed the real deal. Thought I would just set the record straight!

Telephone: 0151 691 1170

Home Information Packs have been required on New Build Properties since April 2008. There are extra documents which must be included in properties not physically complete, which are not in the standard pack. Pali have been working on a cost effective way of producing these packs for some time and can now offer substantial discounts on multiple Hips ordered on the same development. Pali can provide your Home Information Packs in full or part. We have in-house SAP Assessors who can provide your Predictive Energy Performance Certificate and also your On-Construction Energy Assessment when required. If you instruct Pali to provide your initial SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) Report, we can offer further discounts on your Hips.
Pali have been providing Personal Local Authority Searches since 1999 and have a vast wealth of experience in the conveyancing search industry.
If you require any further information please email nick@paliltd.com or telephone 0151 691 1170.