Housing associations and local authorities
Home Information Packs will contain an Energy Performance Certificate and other key documents such as evidence of title, local authority and drainage and water searches and key leasehold documents where appropriate. You should be aware of when the requirement to provide a Home Information Packs applies to the sale of one of your properties.
See also our Other publications page for details of how local authorities should prepare in regard to property searches.
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Requirement for Home Information Packs to be provided in social housing sales
From 14 December 2007 a residential property being marketed to the public for sale with vacant possession will require a Home Information Pack. There has been some confusion as to when a HIP will be required for social housing sales.
HIPs are required:
- When a residential property is marketed for sale to the public at large or to a section of the public (i.e. a particular group of people, such as everyone on a waiting list)
HIPs are not required:
- Where the property is not being marketed (eg a sale resulting from a speculative enquiry from a would be buyer) nor where the property is marketed to an individual (e.g. the next person on a waiting list) by the seller.
Thus for individual Low Cost Home Ownership (LCHO) schemes the position is broadly as follows:
New Build HomeBuy (shared ownership)- HIPs apply to marketed sales, including limited marketing to specific groups e.g all on waiting list or all key workers in area/on waiting list. HIPs do not apply to marketing by a RSL to an individual (e.g. a social tenant or the next person/key worker on the list)
Shared ownership resales - Offering the property back to the RSL or to a person nominated by the RSL is not caught. For re-sales by the shared owner on the open market a HIP will be required.
Open Market HomeBuy - HIPs will apply and be the responsibility of the seller.
RTB/RTA and Social HomeBuy - not being marketed so no HIP required.
Home Buy agents – Will not be responsible for the HIP. This responsibility will rest with the developing RSL.
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Questions and Answers
The Q & A has been compiled following consultation with interested parties and is intended to help social landlords prepare for the introduction of HIPs. However, please e mail contactus@communities.gsi.gov.uk if you require any clarification or have any further questions to add to the list.
What is the cost of a HIP?
The price of a pack will be set by the market and not by Government.
Who pays for a HIP?
The seller of the property.
HomeBuy Agents (appointed housing associations) now market all the grant funded Homebuy schemes in their particular region. They often e-mail available properties to people on council waiting lists or advertise them via their website. Does this mean they are obliged to provide HIPs for properties marketed in this way?
Section 154 of the Housing Act 2004 states that a person responsible for the marketing of a property will be responsible for providing the Home Information Pack. Although Home Buy Agents are marketing all of the grant funded schemes in a given area they are actually acting as a 'shop window' and the responsibility for the marketing of the properties involved still rests with the developing RSL and thus the developing RSL is responsible for the production of a pack. If the HomeBuy Agent is also the developing RSL then they will be responsible for the HIP
Is the Social Landlord required to provide information to a leaseholder (i.e Right to Buy and Right to Acquire purchasers and shared owners) selling on their property or share on the open market?
Yes. The leasehold information which a leaseholder is required to have before marketing their property is listed here. Many leaseholders will already have this information but the landlord may be the first contact point for the leaseholder if they don't have it and require it. This is not a new burden as social landlords are already required to provide this information under the present system, but they will now need to provide it at the beginning of the process. Social landlords may need to change their processes to accommodate this.
For purchasers: I bought my flat on RTB/RTA/PRTB. I am selling on but my landlord (or the former local authority landlord) is unable to supply all the required information. What should I do?
Providing you can show that you have made all reasonable efforts to obtain information then the HIP regulations provide that a pack without this information can be used. However, this does not necessarily mean that it will be acceptable to potential buyers.
Who pays for this information which Social Landlords are being asked to provide by leaseholders?
The leaseholder. However we would expect the social landlord to provide any documents quickly and at a reasonable cost.
In shared ownership sales, will HIPs be required on each step when staircasing (ie the purchase of further shares)?
No. This is because the further share is being sold to a sitting tenant and is not being marketed.
For purchasers: Government says it wants LCHO to be affordable, but isn't this an extra burden? For RSLs: Government wants to be efficient and cut admin costs. Isn't this contrary to that agenda?
Not at all. The introduction of HIPs will ensure that buyers and sellers are better prepared and have more information from the start thus helping address problems caused by delays. HIPs will also ensure that important information about improving the energy efficiency of homes is made available every time a property is sold. For social housing landlords we are expecting this to lead to efficiency savings over time as processes are adapted to complement the HIP environment
Many RSLs provide handbooks/information on sale; can these be used as a HIP?
The regulations are specific about what information a HIP can contain. This is divided into required and authorised information. Required information should be included in all packs where relevant and available. Authorised information can be included in the pack but is not essential. RSLs could consider packaging their handbooks or other pre-sale information with HIPS, where this is feasible within the regulations
Will HIP data interface with the National Register of Social Housing?
The NROSH database will, eventually, contain details of every social housing home in England. Housing developed for sale through Newbuild HomeBuy will be recorded, as will rented homes that are sold to tenants and then later sold on. NROSH will contain physical or contextual detail about homes and it is likely there will be some read-across to the information which is either required or authorised. It may therefore be an easier place for social landlords to access information needed for HIPs than their own records. This will be explored further in due course.
Many RSLs are now in groups. Can larger groups centralise production/management of HIPs, to save money?
In principle this would be acceptable providing that all the HIP duties are met. It would be for RSLs themselves to decide how best this can be achieved. If such an organisational structure was adopted, the developing RSLs would remain the 'responsible person' for their own properties.
We are a social landlord marketing a number of newly-built properties; can we produce generic documents to save money?
For off-plan sales, the information on title and local searches is likely to refer to the development as a whole and thus generic documents will be acceptable. A predicted energy assessment will be required (instead of the full EPC) which will be an estimate of the property's energy efficiency based on the design plans and would be the same for all properties being built to those plans. The Predicted Energy Assessment needs to be replaced in the HIP with the full EPC when this is available on completion of the home.
On shared ownership re-sales the lease often states that the nomination period begins when the leaseholder agrees to sell (based on an agreed valuation) so the nomination period may start well before the HIP is in place and marketing can begin. This could be a real problem when the nomination period is for four weeks.
While temporary arrangements are in place a property can be marketed as soon as the required documents have been commissioned. We shall consider this issue further before the temporary arrangements come to an end on 31 December 2008 and will provide further guidance.
Again on shared ownership re-sales, if the property remains unsold at the end of the nomination period does a new HIP need to be commissioned before it is marketed more widely?
If the property is offered individually to households on the waiting list this does not amount to marketing and therefore no HIP is required until the property is marketed more widely. However if the property is offered to all households on the waiting list this is defined as marketing and therefore a HIP is required. In this case the property will be continually marketed - albeit to a different market -so it will not require a new HIP to be produced.
If you require any further information please email contactus@communities.gsi.gov.uk
