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Home sellers flood market to avoid HIPs
The property market is being flooded as sellers try to avoid paying for Home Information Packs, surveyors claim.
With barely a fortnight left before the introduction of the HIPs, property insiders said last night they were braced for "mayhem".
In a survey to be published today, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says there was an influx of properties coming on to estate agents' books last month.
Potential sellers were trying to get their properties on the market before the introduction of HIPs on June 1.
The panic moves come amid speculation that Gordon Brown may scrap the scheme.
The Government has already watered down the contents of the packs following protests last year. Mr Brown yesterday refused to back the scheme ahead of crucial votes in both Houses of Parliament.
The RICS says the number of instructions to estate agents had increased suddenly in recent months. As a result the amount of property on estate agents' books has increased by two per cent - the first rise since November. The RICS warns that if the increases continue this month, as expected, they could force down house prices.
David Stubbs, the chief economist at the RICS, said: "We can now see a definite influence of HIPs on new instructions.
"We've actually been quite surprised by how big an issue it appears to have become for sellers. The confusion about what will happen to their introduction is putting the wind up some vendors."
The introduction has also prompted a chorus of disapproval from surveyors throughout the country.
Mark Hunter, a surveyor from Doncaster, said: "Panic is now starting to spread among sellers as they start to realise the full implications of the ill-conceived HIPs. If the HIPs do come in, the market will, in our opinion, be at serious risk of destabilisation."
From next month it will be illegal to put a property up for sale either through an estate agent or privately without having a HIP, which includes paperwork currently carried out by the buyer and an Energy Performance Certificate, to assess environmental impact.
Sent: 15/05/2007 19:51:00
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