Hip view (Home Information Packs and Energy Performance Certificates EPC

In the continuing struggle by personal search companies to gain their legally entitled access to environmental information, the Basildon office of PALI (Property And Land Information) lodged a complaint against Maldon Council for refusing access to Building Control records and charging to provide information contained there in. Jeremy Tyler of the Basildon office complained that Maldon were operating restrictive practices as the information he was requesting access to was environmental and should be available to the public free of charge. The council disputed this and continued to refuse access to the information. Jeremy requested that his complaint be entered into the councils complaints review process. Maldon re-iterated its refusal so Jeremy reported the council to The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) which rules on these matters.

As the ICO had already ruled on two similar cases it was expected that the ruling would be in line with these previous rulings. That is in fact what happened and the ruling was in favour of PALI and against Maldon.
The full report and decision by the ICO can be read on this blog by
clicking here. In summary the decision was that the information requested was environmental and access should be freely available at a point designated for that purpose and within a reasonable time scale.

Nick Small of Pali Ltd Merseyside, The PALI head office said “This is good news for the Personal Search Companies and Home Information Pack ( HIP ) providers, We at PALI are determined to keep our prices as competitive as possible for the benefit of the consumer and our clients. The price rises imposed by the councils since April this year have had the effect of forcing up the cost of searches and Home Information Packs ( Hips )’.

The proposed doubling of the charges to access the Land Charges registers by councils in January will further drive up these cost so it is important that we make a stand against abuses of monopoly positions, restrictive practises, restraint of trade and illegal charges. Various offices of PALI have similar complaints lodged with the ICO currently and are hopeful of similar decisions. These will be reported on this blog as and when they are published.

Decision Notice

#ukgovOSS