New first day marketing petition launches

Agents are being urged to sign a new petition lodged on the Downing Street website which calls for agents to continue to be allowed to market properties as soon as they come up for sale, without having to wait for a Home Information Pack.

The petition has been submitted by agent Trevor Kent and has already been signed by over 150 people.

At the moment, an exemption allows homes to be marketed without a HIP in place, just as long as the HIP has been ordered and payment arranged.

This exemption is due to end on January 1, 2009.

A similar petition aimed at extending first day marketing beyond May 31 this year was lodged by Nick Salmon and attracted 9,599 suppporting signatures. On May 8 the Government announced an extension of the exemption fromJune 1 to December 31, "in order to provide a further period of flexibility".

The petition says:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow intending home sellers (and their estate agents) to be permitted to continue to put their homes on the market on the day they choose after 31/12/2008 without having to wait for a Home Information Pack (HIP) to arrive.:

Kent said that with HIPs currently taking ten days to arrive, this was an unacceptable delay. The new petition can be found at:

https://petitions.number10.gov.uk:80/Homeinfopacks/