Estate agents are being accused of putting house sales at risk by ignoring the law on Home Information Packs and marketing homes before Hips are prepared. A trade body, the Association of Hip Providers (Ahipp), says mystery shopping exercises at estate agents’ offices in three London boroughs show at least 80 homes for sale without packs.
The body claims four council trading standards departments across the UK have issued fixed penalty notices on estate agents – the official sanction for breaching pack legislation – and says some councils are reporting offending agents to the Office of Fair Trading.The packs include title deeds, search information and energy efficiency data about the property for sale, and must be commissioned by the seller before a home goes on the market.
Those who start marketing a home without a Hip in place can be fined up to £200 a day, and if a purchaser’s conveyancing solicitor discovers the pack is missing the sale will fall through.Ahipp says some estate agents are “openly flouting the law” adding that the penalties served so far are the tip of the iceberg and there are “many more to come.”
Which? found that companies that specialised in preparing packs were generally cheaper than estate agents who offered the service in addition to their sales and marketing of the property. Even so, prices varied widely between direct providers, with some almost £200 dearer than others.
The fear among some in the property industry is that if the Tories remain favourites to win the election, some estate agents will not commission Hips on homes prepared for sale shortly before polling day in the belief that they will no longer be needed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment