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Home information packs: The low-down

After years of planning and debating, Home Information Packs (or HIPs for short) became the law on 1 June 2007. Now, anyone who walks into an estate agent's and puts their house up for sale, by law has to compile a HIP before they can market their home

HIPS cost between £700 - £1,000, and it takes roughly two weeks to get all the information together. There are several companies out there who are specialising in compiling HIPs, including My Sale Pack (www.mysalepack.com, 0870 285 1474).

The packs include a Home Condition Report (HCR), the survey element of the pack. The HCR looks out for defects (subsidence, for example), but falls short of a full structural survey. The HCR does not include a valuation of the property - this means that, in some cases, mortgage lenders will still need to carry out their own valuations. A spokesperson for the Council of Mortgage Lenders says on the matter: 'Lenders need a robust valuation of the property. That information may or may not be contained by the HCR. We believe more than half of the mortgages applied for still require a traditional valuation.'

There will also be an energy efficiency report: this will show how much money a buyer will need to spend to make the property as efficient as possible, and how many years it would take for you to recoup any money spent. Searches, proof of title and planning consents will all be included in the pack.

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