HIP Time Constraints and Conveyancing
Every non-exempt property in England and Wales is required to be accompanied by a Home Information Pack, or HIP, on the day it is first marketed. The seller is responsible for the payment and provision of the Pack and usually relies on the conveyancing service or solicitor to gather the necessary documents in a timely fashion. There are some time constraints to the documents that are included and to the pack itself but they shouldn’t prove too restrictive in most cases.
Some of the legal documents need to be three months old or newer when the property is first marketed. In all cases, the contents of the HIP must be no older than twelve months old. Because the HIP is created just prior to the marketing of a house and takes approximately one to two weeks to complete this shouldn’t cause any problems in the sale process.
Once a house is on the market, the HIP remains in place until either the property is sold or it is taken off the market. If a property is taken off the market but put back on within twelve months, the same HIP can be used negating the need to pay for a new one.
A lot of the documents are time sensitive to the buyer and become useless after a period of time. However, the seller is not actually responsible for the provision of more up to date documents as long as they have met the requirements mentioned above.