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Trading Standards' Home Information Packs investigation exposes 'serious flaws'
An investigation by Birmingham Trading Standards has found that house buyers are being misled because vital information supposed to found in Home Information Packs (HIPs) is inaccurate, incomplete
or missing.
Officers went into 15 estate agencies in Birmingham and asked to see the HIP for each property.
They randomly selected six from the 15 and subjected the local searches contained in the documents to detailed inspection. Trading Standards classed five out of the six as being
unsatisfactory.
The HIPs falsely claimed that information was not available or answered questions with the statement 'not as far as is known' when the information was readily available from the local authority.
Officers suspect that private search companies are short-circuiting the system to save money.
Examples include:
- Claiming there is no available planning history on the property when it is readily available.
- Giving inaccurate dates for planning proposals.
- Stating there are no planning restrictions on a property when there is a restriction on permitted development.
- Stating a property is within 200metres of a proposed conservation area when it is inside the proposed conservation area.
- Declaring the property to be in Worcestershire when it is in Birmingham.
- A claim that planning history only dated back as far as 1990 when the local council held paper records dating from 1948.
Councillor Neil Eustace, Chair of the Public Protection Committee, said: "The results of this survey are shocking. Buying a house is one of the most important investments most people will make and
they rely on professionals to do their job properly.
"Some of this inaccurate or missing information could result in someone buying a house they would otherwise think twice about. A local authority search would have to be done later and any
inaccuracies detected could result in sales falling through. These searches are simply not worth the paper they are written on."
Birmingham Trading Standards has now written to the companies involved, asking them to explain the inaccuracies and missing information, in order to investigate further.
COMMENTS
Starkover
Commented 9 weeks ago
This is not nearly as bad news as it sounds. There is abundant evidence that very few house buyers ever look at a HIP. Most conveyancers do not rely on the information provided in the HIP, because they know it is mostly not worth the paper it is printed on. House buyers are highly unlikely to be inconvenienced by low quality HIPs. The only person who suffers is the house owner, who has to pay for them. The feeling on the part of home owners appears to be that the HIP is just another tax, like stamp duty, and achieves nothing.
The Birmingham investigation may have positive results, even so. It should cut the HIp providers down to size. They have spent the last year boasting about how wonderful their product is when conveyancing solicitors know that it is not, but have not wanted to say.. Some penitence from them is overdue.
Less likely is that the Eureka bulb will light in Caroline Flint's office. She inherited HIPs from Yvette Cooper, and no-one in her department dares tell her they are a complete waste of time. We will have to wait for the next government to see them axed, at which point the property market will breathe a sigh of relief.
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