Home Information Pack Contents
Well, there is some mandatory contents and also some optional content. The following is what you should find within the home information pack:
A title plan. This is the proof that the vendor owns the property, which is obviously quite an important point if they are going to sell it to you legally!
There is also an official copy of the individual register, and some local authority searches. You'll also see some sort of formal statement that states the property is indeed for sale, again this is also rather useful given you are hoping to buy, or potentially hoping to buy, said property.
You will also find energy information in there. This will be in the form of a certificate that gives a rating to the house for it's energy efficiency. This means for instance that if the house is well insulated then it will get a better score for energy efficiency and so on.
There will also be information related to water and drainage, and their efficiency. Also as appropriate you'll find information for leasehold and commonhold sales.
There is also optional content that may or may not be there. Specifially there may be something called a Home Condition Report, a HCR, which tells you about the structure of the property. This is along the same lines as a Homebuyer's Report which would be paid for by the buyer. Clearly as a buyer it is good if the HIP has this, but it is optional; if there you'll instantly get some idea of what work (if any) might need to be done, and this can be factored into your offer, whereby you can ask for a lower price due to any work required, or simply ask that it is done and paid for by the vendor as a condition of your offer.
And so that in a nutshell is what a home information pack contains. For more information on the reasons behind HIPs, read the accompanying article on home information packs explained.
More property related articles:
- Finding Commercial Property
- First Time Buyers
- Making an Offer on Property
- Questions to ask when viewing a house
- Moving to Spain Finance
