Home information packs (Hips) have come into effect today (August 1st) in England and Wales.
The controversial packs, which will cost typical homeowners between £400 and £700 to put together, will only initially be required for properties with four or more bedrooms.
This means that some 50,000 homes will need a Hip this month, according to estimates by online estate agent Rightmove, which covers around 90 per cent of properties on the market and currently has some 45,000 properties with four or more bedrooms listed on its site.
The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (Ahipp) claims that the pack will bring various pieces of information normally gathered throughout a purchase "to the front of the process".
"In addition, a new energy performance certificate (EPC) will be included in the pack which will rate a home's energy efficiency and make suggestions for reducing carbon emissions and energy bills."
However, critics claim that the packs will make it more expensive for homeowners to sell their property and warn that there are too few inspectors to carry out the assessments required to issue energy performance certificates.
The Conservative party has also pointed out that the information obtained through energy performance certificates could be used to raise council taxes for properties that lack double glazing and effective insulation.
All our Insulation articles are available for republishing, provided the links in the content remain intact. You can also use our RSS news feed to republish all of our Insulation articles.
News
Noise reduction