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AccuHIP aims to provide a swift service – our target is production of the HIP within a 5 working day period. Should there be any delay – for example gaining access to a Clients property, we will contact you to keep you informed – so you always know production schedules.

How would you like it delivered? We have a flexible solution – we want to meet your needs. Here are some of the alternatives we can provide:

• a professional polypropylene ring binder that displays all the section of the HIP – an excellent method of showing the HIP to the prospective buyers.
• electronic information – so you can print your own copies off whenever you want. This saves you any problems you may have in storing many HIP packs in your offices.
• information on a CD – as with providing it electronically, it enables the easy storage of the disk along with the property documents and papers.

There’s no price difference for the above alternatives, although multiple choices or reprints will incur a nominal charge.
If you think of any other method of HIP provision – please do let us know. We are here to meet your needs.

While the property is on the market, there is no need to update the HIP. If the sale of your property stops and then starts again, you may have to compile a new HIP and provide up-to-date documents.

However, you can carry on using the same HIP without the need to update any of the documents where:

• marketing stopped because an offer was accepted and the sale has fallen through (but remarketing must start within one year of the date when marketing first began or, if later, within 28 days of the sale falling through)
• marketing has stopped for any other reason and the seller remarkets the property within one year of the date when marketing first began.

The effect of this is that the HIP has a shelf-life of at least 12 months for the seller

It is possible that this validity period will be revised, so be sure to check online. Having made energy related changes to your property and wish to update your HIP, AccuHIP do not make a full charge for updating your pack. We will provide a discount for each required element of up to 50%.

The HIP is made up of required (compulsory) and authorised (optional) items.
There shouldn't be any marketing or advertising material in the pack, so make sure it contains official information only.

From 6 April 2009, the HIP must be available and contain the following documents on the first day a property is put on the market:

• Home Information Pack Index
• Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ)
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) or Predicted Energy Assessment (PEA)
  
• sustainability information (required for newly built homes)
  
• sale statement
  
• evidence of title

If the following documents are unavailable when marketing begins, they should be added to the HIP as soon as they are available. These documents must be included within 28 days of the date the property was first placed on the market:

• standard searches (local authority and drainage and water)
  
• a copy of the lease for leasehold properties
  
• commonhold documents, where appropriate
  

AccuHIP will produce your HIP and deliver it to you – hassle free. All you need do is to ask for it to be produced, supplying us with the relevant information. Prices vary for production based upon what information you need in the pack and the type of property, for example Freehold will be cheaper to produce than Leasehold property.

Very simply – we have one route – we use our own Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) and Home Inspectors (HIs) – people we trust to work with us and maintain a high standard. The DEAs (or HIs) must visit your house and perform an assessment.

The EPC assessment can take around one and a half hours to perform on an average 3 bed semi-detached property, however, the time will vary dependent upon how big the house is and how many extensions etc. The assessor will give you a guide when he/she arrives at your house.

Full Home Condition Reports are only rarely requested and can take up to two and a half hours to carry out the survey.

An Energy Performance Certificate shows the official energy efficiency rating of a property. If you're not planning to sell your home, you don't need to do anything.

The Energy Performance Certificate is similar to the certificates now provided with domestic appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.

Its purpose is to record how energy-efficient a property is as a building. The certificate will provide a rating of the property from A to G in graphical format, where A is very efficient and G is very inefficient. The average rating for property is within the band E.

Two ratings are shown.

1. The environmental impact rating is a measure of a home's impact on the environment in terms of carbon dioxide (C02) emissions - the higher the rating, the less impact it has on the environment.
2. The energy-efficiency rating is a measure of a home's overall efficiency. The higher the rating, the more energy-efficient the home is, and the lower the fuel bills are likely to be.

Each rating is based on the performance of the building itself and its services (such as heating and lighting), rather than the domestic appliances within it. The certificate also lists the potential rating of the building if all the cost-effective measures were installed.

The energy performance related features are also assessed ‘good, average or poor’ and provides recommendations as to what measures can be undertaken to improve the properties performance and ideas of the approximate costs.

The ratings will vary according to the age, size and condition of the building. The potential rating on the certificate will take these factors into consideration, and the suggested measures will be tailored so that they are realistic for the particular building.

By 2009, all buildings in the UK that are constructed, sold or rented out will have to have an Energy Performance Certificate, in accordance with the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

There are two parts to a HIP:

• the Required Components – these are the compulsory elements
• the Authorised Components – these may be included at your discretion and add value to your prospective buyers by providing additional reassurance.

Required Components are:

• An index (i.e. a list of the contents of the Pack)
• A Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) – generally completed by the property owner
• An Energy Performance Certificate Energy Performance Certificates tell you how energy efficient a home is on a scale of A to G. The most efficient homes - which should have the lowest fuel bills - are in band A. There are very few properties that fit the criteria for a band A energy efficiency rating – the average being between ratings C and F.
• A sale statement provide some basic information about the property, including:
  • The address of the property being sold
  • Whether the property is freehold, leasehold or commonhold
  • Whether the property is registered or unregistered
  • Whether or not the property is being sold with vacant possession
• Evidence of title & title plan or evidence of a Search of the Index Map (SIM):
  
  These documents prove that the seller owns the property and therefore has the right to sell it. Where the property being sold is registered, certain documents that are available on request from the Land Registry must be included in the Pack. These provide an up-to-date official record of who owns the land, and consist of:
  • Official copies of the individual register (made up of a property register, proprietorship register and, typically, a charges register)
  • An official copy of the title plan
• Standard searches ( Local Enquires & Drainage and Water enquiries):
  • The local land charges register relating to the property being sold. Once a search is completed, which can be carried out by a personal search company or a local authority, you will receive an official search certificate.
  • Other records held by the local authority on matters of interest to buyers, such as planning decisions and road building proposals. These are referred to as local enquiries in the Home Information Pack regulations. A local authority or a personal search company can be used.
  • The provision of drainage and water services to the property. The local water company or a personal search company can be used (however, the search must comply with the HIP Regulations).
• Where appropriate, common hold/leasehold information

Whilst AccuHIP’s HIP pack can be presented in a professional binder dependent upon your choice of production (binder, electronic, CD) – there is an official government website that shows the general format...

However, please rest assured. What we produce for you will be a far better standard than that represented by the government site.

HIPs became compulsory at varying times for certain residential property – the following are the dates when the regulations changed:

• 1st August 2007 most properties with 4 bedrooms and above require a HIP.
• 10th September 2007 most properties with 3 bedrooms.
• 14th December 2007 most 1 & 2 bedroom properties required HIPs.

• properties where there is no marketing, for example if you are selling to a member of your family
• non-residential properties
• properties limited by law to use as holiday accommodation or occupation for less than 11 months per year
• mixed sales, for example a shop with flat
• sales of portfolios of properties, for example selling two properties together
• properties not being sold with completely vacant possession, for example with a sitting tenant
• unsafe properties and properties due to be demolished
• properties sold through the ‘Right to Buy’, ‘Right to Acquire’ and ‘Social HomeBuy’ home ownership schemes

Anyone involved in the property sale may begin the ordering of a HIP. It is expected that in general the majority of HIP orders are received from the following areas:

• Seller/Vendor
• Estate Agents
• Solicitors
• Property Developers
• Lenders
• Introducers
• IFAs

Yes you will, though you need to consult your solicitor for details of this. If you have used AccuHIP for the HIP on your old house we are willing to offer a discounted service to you and to the client that has purchased your old property – please do not miss out on this opportunity to save money – please ring to find out what discount we can offer.

Most buyers and sellers were dissatisfied with the current system for house buying and selling. The introduction of the Housing Act 2004 was introduced precisely to start the process of radically overhauling the conveyance process and bring the legislation into the 21st century.

Here are some of the detailed findings of the research carried out in 1998 that led to the changes being made:

• 28% of offers made and accepted to purchase houses failed (this extrapolates to 583,000 failed transactions per year, based on 1.5 million successful transactions in 2002)
• A typical failed transaction cost about £900 (£680 for Buyers and £226 for Sellers). This was mainly Conveyance costs, mortgage valuation and survey fees. This had increased to £1000 by 2002. This does not include additional and abortive costs by Marketing & Estate Agents.
• It took an average of 8 weeks from offer acceptance to exchange of contracts. This is slow by international standards.

Therefore, to answer the question, “What was wrong with the Old system?”:

• Key information available too late in the process.
• The Government considers a 28% transaction failure too high resulting in a high overall unnecessary expenditure by buyers and sellers.
• The transaction period is too long and getting worse. This appears to be confirmed by a more recent survey by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Ipsos MORI where the average transaction period was found to have increased to 81 days.
• Also from the BRE/MORI study, the average (mean) transaction time from marketing to completion was a staggering 6½ months. Even 9 months was not uncommon.
• Too much time wasted in carrying out duplicated searches and surveys (paid for by the buyer)
• Voluntary schemes to improve matters have failed.
• The old system was largely unchanged since the Law of Property Act 1925. Now, with the relatively recent explosion of the Internet, it has radically changed the methods of information exchange and property transfers can take advantage of these new systems.

No, definitely not. None of our forms ask for this information. If you are asked for this information by a HIP Provider, you need to consider why?

AccuHIP Ltd certainly does not alter its pricing based upon Property Value.

Potential buyers have a right to a copy of a HIP and this should be provided within 14 days of a request. Sellers (or their marketing agent) are entitled to make a reasonable charge to cover copying and postage costs. This may be provided electronically, on-line or as a PDF file on a CD or pen drive, or as a printed hard copy.

If you believe that you are being denied a copy of the pack unlawfully, local authority trading standards officers are responsible for enforcement of these duties.

Note however, the seller or agent can refuse to provide a copy in certain limited cases. These are where the seller believes that the person making the request:

• Can not afford the property
• Is not really interested in buying the property
• Is not a person to whom the seller would wish to sell the property (but this does not allow them to unlawfully discriminate against someone).

No. Please don’t worry. The HIP is a reflection of the property as it is seen by the EPC assessment and the searches that are carried out. The house will therefore neither pass nor fail – it is purely a reflection of those findings and a statement of the findings.

If you are a seller, it is not a legal requirement that you must be present, however, it is highly recommended that you are. In addition to security and heath & safety issues, the Inspector will probably be asking questions that you may be able to answer. However, it is essential that there are no minors left in “control” of the property. If this was the case, the Domestic Energy Assessor will need to re-arrange the inspection.

If you are an agent then we will always request that the seller or another ‘responsible person’ is present. When this is not possible, special arrangements can be made.

• The EPC is not a valuation on the property
• The EPC is not a Home Condition Report
• The EPC will not tell you what the fuel bills will be
• The EPC will not give advice on suppliers/installers who could undertake the work to improve the energy efficiency

Inevitably, there may be an occasion when we just aren’t as perfect as we should be. Therefore, if you are not happy, or have a complaint – please contact us immediately – we will be more than happy to help and sort things out. In fact, we believe we are privileged if you take the time to tell us when we fail. It is only through your advice we get a chance to improve – so don’t worry – we welcome your call.