On 8 December 2008, the Minister for Housing, Margaret Beckett, announced proposals to improve and simplify the consumer content of the Home Information Pack (HIP). The Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) has been designed to be easy for sellers to complete without professional help and will provide buyers with basic, useful information about a property that will help to inform their decision to view a property or make an offer. This is great news for those that do not intend sell their homes themselves without using an estate agent.
The PIQ could be the first official acknowledgement that private sellers are now a growing band of people and have made the Property Information Questionnaire easily available to those selling property privately
From April 6th 2009, those involved in selling a home there are changes you need to know about. From this date, important changes are being made to Home Information Packs. Estate agents and other property professionals will need to understand them to be able to advise sellers and potential buyers.
The current first day market exemption will come to an end, meaning that the basic HIP must be available before the seller can begin marketing their property. Local searches can still be included in the HIP up to 28 days after the first day of marketing.
The new Property Information Questionnaire will be a compulsory document for inclusion in the HIP. The PIQ is designed to be completed by a seller, providing simple, useful information about a property. This can help to inform prospective buyers’ decisions about whether to view, or make an offer on a particular property.
In addition, the use of insurance in personal searches to cover missing data will end.
Every property search in a HIP must now contain all the required search information.
These changes are being introduced to Home Information Packs so that better information is available at the beginning of the home buying and selling process, and before buyers incur costs. Informed choice by buyers at the start can help reduce delays later on and wasted time for sellers.
Further information:
Government Information for Home sellers
You don’t have to give up an existing agent to sell your home privately
Private advertising does not conflict with a sole agency contract.You don’t have to give up an existing agent to use ou service, but you COULD save the agent’s commission if you find a buyer yourself.
If you price your property fairly, you will get a good response from our advertising – if not, you have the facilities to edit and modify the details to refine the advertising until you get the right response level. Once we generate the enquiries, the rest is up to you – as stated above, we don’t sell the property, you do, so ultimately success is in your hands (but we help a bit!). Read the details on our main SELLERS pages – information about our fees, advertising partners and the websites we publish on you will find there. To get the best out of the service, read also the guides to ADDING a property and PHOTOGRAPHS.
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