HIPS
Home Information Packs (HIPs) were suspended by the Government on 21st May 2010.
This does not mean they have been completely abolished.
Until they are or until the Government decides what they wish to do with them, you will only need to ensure that an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) has been requested for your property in order to put it on the market for sale. Your estate agent will be able to arrange this as part of the marketing process.
We too can make arrangements for the certificate. Please feel to contact us if you wish to discuss this.
EPCs
From 6 April 2012, changes to the EPC regulations will come into effect. The key changes are:
- An EPC must be commissioned before marketing for any buildings, be they residential or commercial, if they are being sold or rented out – the current rules only relate to residential property
- Following commissioning, the EPC must be obtained within 7 days – the current rules allow for reasonable efforts to be made to obtain the EPC within 28 days, so this is quite a substantial reduction in time
- The complete EPC must be produced to a prospective purchaser or tenant at the earliest available opportunity but in any event they must receive it before they view the property or receive any marketing particulars – keeping hold of an EPC until just before contracts are exchanged or a tenancy agreement signed, as currently happens, will be unlawful
- Marketing particulars for a property must include the actual front page of the EPC – it will no longer be enough to produce the graph (asset rating) only
- Trading Standards will be given increased powers to enforce the new regulations. They will be able to force sellers and landlords and their agents to produce evidence that an EPC has been commissioned or even produce a copy of the EPC itself within 7 days of a demand. Failure to comply may result in a penalty notice being issued against a seller, landlord or an agent.
- Marketing a property without an EPC may lead to the issue of a penalty notice. The penalty sum will be 12.5% of the properties rateable value, subject to a minimum penalty of £500 and a maximum penalty of £5,000
- Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) will have to obtain further qualifications by 6 April 2012. Failing to do so will mean they cannot practice as a DEA and if they have still failed to qualify by October 2012 then they will have to re-sit the entire DEA qualification and training procedure.