Good news for all of us trying our hardest to get out to the sun! Ruth Kelly has announced this afternoon that the uk government is delaying the introduction of the Home Information Packs until August 1st, when it will only apply to houses with 4 or more bedrooms.

The market down here in the South West has become flooded with property for sale in the last week or so, with everyone trying to beat the June 1 deadline. Perhaps now common sense will prevail?
Sally

It was doomed from the start. B****y Madness

Cornish Maid

Do not want to depress you but it will not be long before you will have to have an Engery Certif in Spain to sell a house [or commercial property or even let it].....EU directive which Spain agreed
In UK: RICS has not agreed with proposals and may go back again to delay everything
There are not enough people qualified to do Energy Cert [ most RICS people think they are already qualified......but Gov want a new test which cost money......so many surveyors take the view OK at present why bother!!!!

It is unfair for a 4 bed terrace in the North value [ maybe less than £100k] in worst part of Liverpool or Manchester to have a HIP when a 3 bed apartment in London worth £1m does not need one

Watch the news......everything will be delayed some time!!!

What a surprise!!! If anybody had an ounce of sense it would be thrown out altogether. Having worked in domestic conveyancing for years all the Solicitors and estate agents could see what was going to happen. Most people selling their houses take all fees etc etc out of the profit and I know that an awful lot of people would not have the necessay funds to provide the HIPS pack. I know that my old firm of Solicitors was trying to jump on the bandwagon well over a year ago and sign up estate agents who would recommend the firm to prepare the packs (but of course if was the Sellers who would have to foot the bill for their preparation). It made me even more determined to get out of conveyancing before they came in!!

P.S. Local searches are only accepted by Lenders if under three months old so if the house takes a while to sell they will have to be renewed and most Councils charge well over £100 and mortgage lenders will still insist on doing their own survey. What a waste of time and money!

I agree totally with what you are saying regarding the unfairness of it all.

However,the fact that there have been nowhere near sufficient numbers of people trained to do this energy certification could only have caused huge delays/ queues, not to mention hiked prices for the job to be done.

The whole thing was badly organised, the government seemed to want to rush it through without looking at the whole picture. All that has happened is that huge numbers of people have now put their properties on the market in an attempt to beat the June 1 deadine, this appears to have started the slowdown of the property market. There is just too much choice out there for buyers at the moment!

I realise that it is an EU directive, but surely there has to be common sense used in it's introduction?

Absolutely stupid idea and why any of the government bods ever thought it would make house buying/selling easier and quicker, I have no idea.

My house in Spain has got no insulation whatsoever, no way to do any, so I don't know what happens there if I ever want to sell it, it is a typical house in a pueblo blanco.

Stupid.

You will get it in Spain as long as the bricks are cemented together. ;-)

Lol!

?Bricks?

Do you live in a cave house then ?
I have seen a few and they look really good.

No, I don't live in a cave house

What I meant was our house contains brick as only a small proportion of its building materials.

It is also made of breeze block, concrete, adobe, rubble, wood, slate, rock, launa and mountainside.

No cavity walls or loft insulation here!

Sometimes I tune in on a different wavelength.. when I saw the post I assumed that you were having a high tech joint replacment, the manufacture of which had been held up... was I disappointed to be reminded about the mundane Home Information Pack fiasco.

Every build is the same or similar to yours, only just recently they are changing, even then i dont think there is much insulation or dampcourse being included. ;-)

[QUOTE=poollounger;4819984]Sometimes I tune in on a different wavelength.. when I saw the post I assumed that you were having a high tech joint replacment,

If only you knew how close to the truth you were! So far I have had a left knee replaced, right hip resurfaced, and in March of this year had the left hip resurfaced! Perhaps I should rename myself metal minnie??

The uk government must be feeling decidedly uncomfortable with all that egg on their faces!

[QUOTE=Cornish maid;4820015] What's all this resurfacing business?? Have never heard of it !! I keep telling myself that when I need to have my bits replaced they will all be bionic, so hang on in there. I know a young person who had the cartilage removed from his knee, fresh cartilage grown in the lab, and then replaced. Says it's very good.