Which yet another government rip off….but anyway. Wer'e having to flog a house that we've been renting out for a while (I know, it's a bad time to sell but it's gotta go) & the estate agents (Reeds Rains) are wanting £350 for the HIP report. That is if we pay straight away, or £500 if we defer for up to 9 months or on completion of a sale. I'm sure there must be a cheaper way but I haven't got a clue! Anyone know?

What'll happen when (eventually) all houses have had a report done & does anyone actually take a great deal of notice of one before buying? We didn't with this one cos A, it was in our price range, B, we liked it, & C, we liked the location!
Thanks in advance.

its a legal requirement for selling a house now. Worth phoning around though – you might find that there are feelance companies doing it without the estate agent's markup in place

Hugh

We used promise homepacks for ours, came in at just over 200 quid.

Was the cheapest we could find, although solicitors tend to get some of the searches redone as part of the conveyancing process.

They're a waste of time in all fairness, a great idea but so watered down from what they were origioanlly supposed to be they just become another pointless fee.

There are companies who will do it much cheaper than the estate agent's person.

We got ours done through the estate agent – they used http://www.simplyhip.co.uk/

solicitors tend to get some of the searches redone as part of the conveyancing process

If the land and drainage searches (I think) are more than 6 months old, they get redone. Otherwise, they shouldn't need doing.

What's the deal with delaying until completion of sale, is that essentially delaying payment for the HIP, or delaying preparation of the HIP?

I don't ask for or read them in the main, and I've bought two places and offered on around six others since the regs came in. £200 seems about the going rate to get one done. I've heard of a new wheeze where folk don't even bother with searches, just buy an indemnity policy to cover themselves against stuff that a search might have turned up. Don't fancy the idea of that much.

What's the deal with delaying until completion of sale, is that essentially delaying payment for the HIP, or delaying preparation of the HIP?

I don't think you can even offer the house for sale until the HIP is complete, so must just be payment. A few places round us are offering to pay it for you and then get the cash back from you one you sell.

…

We looked into this. There was an adavntage in getting the Estate Agent to do it, rather than a company.

But…I can't remember for the life of me what it was. Maybe something to do with actually owning the hip search,r ather than having access to te results, i.e if you take the house off the market, or a limited applicability date or something. Plus I think the estate agents were saying they would have to verify the results of an independent. We looked into this and some fo the freelancers did not seem to be offering them to the accepted industry stadndard…..

I ordered a HIP yesterday. From the solicitor.

The advantage of getting it through your solicitor is that if the HIP expires before the sale is complete, the solicitor can "refresh" it for about £20. And you are not tied in to the estate agent in any way so it will appear more impartial to the buyer.

Try to find a solicitor that used to be a conveyancing specialist. They're hard up at the minute and will be quite keen to give a good value efficient service.

How come there are loads of houses on the market that make no mention of the HIP, yet there are loads that splash it about like its some great selling point? If it were a legal requirement (which I'm sure it is, stupid ideas) why yell about it?

We have just had our house valued and all credit to them, all three estate agents said they can get a pack done for around £350 but we could get it done ourselves by finding someone off the internet and that we could get it for £200 and it would be done much quicker. I assume there isn't much money in it for them and they can't be bothered with the hassle.