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Hush-hush report finds consumers rate HIPs as poor value

05 November 2008
Written by rosalind renshaw

Labour ministers have been accused of trying to bury bad news about Home Information Packs after damning research was quietly published just before the weekend last Friday afternoon.

The report, published by Communities and Local Government, includes the key findings that both buyers and sellers say the cost of a HIP is not balanced out by its benefits, and that HIPs have made buying and selling more complicated.

The media was not alerted to the report, snappily called ‘Home Information Packs, Consumer Focus Group: Qualitative Research Summary Findings’. No press release was issued.

While the research by Ipsos MORI has been conducted independently for CLG, the department appears to be distancing itself from the findings.

CLG makes it clear: “The findings in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department for Communities and Local Government.” CLG also stresses that qualitative research “should not be interpreted as definitive or statistically representative” and says it does not provide “robust evidence”.

CLG has been given the opportunity to say why the press was not alerted to the report, and Estate Agent Today will update this story if we get a response.

The report is based on 12 focus groups – two each in Stockport, Nottingham, Cardiff, Maidenhead, Birmingham and London – consisting of a total of 102 people. These included buyers – among them first-time buyers – and sellers.

They were questioned about the advantages and disadvantages of HIPs.

Advantages were that HIPs were considered a step in the right direction and made for greater commitment, meaning that sales were less likely to fall through.

But disadvantages were that HIPs were not value for money; contained too much jargon and legalese; did not give information that could have been useful (such as the structure of the building, Building Regulations and local amenities); some sellers had had to pay for additional searches; Evidence of Title was considered unnecessary as it could be so quickly obtained from the Land Registry; and none of the participants had acted on the recommendations in the Energy Performance Certificate.

Sellers protested that they struggled “to see the purpose of paying for something that received low levels of interest from buyers”.

There was also confusion as to whether HIPs could be transferred when sellers went from one estate agent to another, and buyers said they didn’t take into account the EPC when making a purchasing decision. Many buyers also said they did not see the HIP until after they had made an offer. However, the report notes that the timing of buyers seeing the HIP depended on the estate agent. Some agents did not know whether they were allowed to show HIPs to purchasers, says the report.

But the most crucial sentence is: “Both buyers and sellers agreed that the additional cost involved in acquiring a HIP was not sufficiently balanced out by its benefits. A large proportion of participants stated that the implementation of HIPs made buying and selling more complicated, but this opinion was not supported by personal experience.”

This last phrase “but this opinion was not supported by personal experience” is not fully explained, although the report is only the summary findings.

The focus groups met between February 26 and March 6. Having taken almost eight months to publish the summary, it is not known when, or if, the full findings will be published.
 
According to the Tories, the research “exposes consumer confusion, apathy and resentment”. Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps said: “Labour are back to their old tricks of trying to bury bad news. Their own research admits that the people think Home Information Packs are a waste of time and money. The public don’t trust the paper these Packs are written on.”

He said: “Conservatives will scrap this red tape, and the Government should use their power immediately to suspend the requirement to buy a Pack to help the beleaguered housing market. I fear that Labour ministers are more interested in saving face than saving people money.”

See www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/consumerqualitativeresearch

Comments

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    Trouble is they will never admit they made a mistake.
    Idiots make good politicians( or is it the other way round? )

    • 06 November 2008 02:47 AM
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    in response to Sir Bashus Moore's initial comments-I think you will find that most Estate Agents find the Hips a complete waste of time and money-Some small agents like ourselves deal with the lower end of the market in terms of sales and most of our vendors hate the fact that they have to pay to put their property up for sale,we certainly make no money whatsoever in these transactions in fact we usually refer the vendors to up to 3 solicitors to start the ball rolling-the sooner the tories get in and scrap them the better!!!

    • 06 November 2008 11:17 AM
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    Alan. In answer to your note about spending searches up, I think you'll find the faster speed at which searches are returned is due to increasing computer use within local authorities, rather than the HIP request itself. Sadly, HIPS are merely a source of revenue for estate agents who are willing to rip their clients off at the very beginning of the agent/client relationship. We raised this point with CLG at HIPS very conception, and CLG told us (as we we part of the initial trial) that they would publisise that HIPS would cost around £500 - £600, whereas the real cost would be less. They PLANNED for agents to make this income stream. When asked whether this compromised the agent/client relationship, they commented that the decision would be left to the individual agent to determine. Quite when the OFT or OEA decide to investigate the money that is being made out of HIPS is surely just a question of time.

    • 06 November 2008 07:55 AM
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    It is all very well for Alan to rest his case but we find that the majority of buying solicitors won't rely on the HIP search. This delays the process and doubles the cost. Scrap'm

    • 05 November 2008 05:22 AM
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    HIPs are not a waste of time.
    You paid for searches in the old system on the property you wanted to buy so there is no difference on the outlay.

    The process of having a HIP does speed up the selling process ask yourself how long it took to get the searches back in the old system.
    I bet some of you waited months for them only to see you property you wanted go by the way side as the deal fell through, so what do you do, look for another property and spend more on searches for that one.

    I rest my case.

    • 05 November 2008 02:09 AM
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    Now this report has eventually been part-published it is entirely in accord with what many estate agents have been consistently saying since HIPs were introduced.

    One has to ask why the government did not commission some robust research to start with, but we must now ask why they have not done so since the alarm bells of this initial research were ringing. In effect the research is saying that HIPs are completely imoptent in achieving any of the governments own objectives for them.

    Given HIPs are costing clients millions to gain little benefit, surely proper research should undretaken and published promptly, or, they should be scrapped immediately! Doing nothing is not an option!!

    • 05 November 2008 01:56 AM
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    Before it became a law I kept an open mind but had my doubets. Now all doubets are gone, - it is clear that HIPS are a total waste of time, money and effort. They should be scrapped.

    • 05 November 2008 01:51 AM
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    One day, when HIPs are dumped into the trash can they deserve, we will look back and ask how could we ever have let HIPs happen and how we could have let this excuse for a government con us all - let's find the trash can.

    • 05 November 2008 01:06 AM
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    Currently working for a well known agent who cover parts of Cheshire and Manchester and they love HIPS and EPCS as they see these two things as an excellent income stream in a poor market, and advise us to over value to get that income in.

    • 05 November 2008 12:38 PM
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    HIPS are a total waste of time & money - nobody is interested or wants them - just another tax on selling - scrap them now please!

    • 05 November 2008 12:14 PM
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    The Govn keep them going purely to save what face they have left....and to help satisfy a crumb of commitment to Kyoto (which could be done to far greater effect, and meaning, without involving it in the house sale and purchase process but that's another story). So much time, money, energy, opinions and column inches have been wasted on 'HIPs' by everyone concerned (...and unconcerned). It has exposed the incompetence of a number of ministers and a total lack of understanding of the house buying process from the Govn, Consumers Assoc and sections of the public.

    • 05 November 2008 12:10 PM
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    HIps do not stop sales falling through, neither do they influence purchases. They are a waste of time, money, and the environmental damage they do is despicable eg fuel used by the DEAs,and reps., paper, ink, electricity - do I need to say more?

    • 05 November 2008 11:49 AM
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    What a load of piffle!

    HIPS are just jargon and exist only to serve Government,provide statistics and get the public to pay for an analisys of energy efficiency to satisfy our commitment to the Kyoto agreement ...Thanks to Mr Blair.

    • 05 November 2008 10:05 AM
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