There have been rumours galore in recent weeks that the
much lauded
Home
information packs (HIPs) implementation would be
delayed as a result of the Governments failure to
properly deal with key issues and industry concerns.
Well guess what? Today the
government dropped the following bombshell:
The
Government is today announcing that we will be
implementing Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and
Home Information Packs (HIPs) from 1 August instead of 1
June. The Government has also reached an agreement with
the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) on
their judicial review of Energy Performance
Certificates.
The
Law
Society has been a staunch opponent to the
forthcoming changes and for the simple reason that there
has been a lack of consultation on the key issues such
as searches and the lack of qualified Domestic Energy
Assessors (DEAs). The Royal Institution of Chartered
Surveyors (RICS) mounted a legal challenge last week
pressing for a Judicial review and this seemed to be he
final straw for the government who had no choice but to
bow to legal pressure to delay the implementation.
The Law Society have
responded to the news in a somewhat unusually scathing
manner:
"A
complete shambles" said the Law Society today as it
commented on the government announcement that HIPs will
be delayed to August 1 and initially only affect 4
bedroom houses and larger. "The government has turned
the whole process of HIPs into a farce. Its consultation
with stakeholders has fallen seriously short of what we
would expect in a genuine consultation exercise for
something as important as this for consumers." said Paul
Marsh, Law Society deputy vice president.
The
government has gone further by amending the
implementation rules to incorporate a phased structure.
From August 1 packs - including energy performance
certificates - will be required for the sale of four
bedroom and larger prperties. These are the
properties which are the most energy inefficient. They
intend to phase in packs for smaller properties as
sufficient energy assessors become ready to start work.
At present there is nowhere near enough assessors to
perform the task that was expected of them.
Many firms
are left seething after their investment in HIPs
marketing has now been completely wasted. The
repercussions will continue for some time following this
latest dramatic development in the troubled birth of the
biggest change to property law for 50 years.
