1. The Home Information Pack duties only apply where marketing activity takes place. Therefore they do not apply to a private sale where there is no marketing of the Property. As from the 1st August the duty to have a HIP only applies to properties with 4 or more bedrooms.

2. There are two categories of people who will be responsible where a property is on the market and therefore subject to the duties concerning the availability of home information packs – the seller of that property, or someone acting as an estate agent for the seller.

3. If a seller instructs an estate agent who has a place of business in England and Wales to put his property on the market, the estate agent or agents will be considered responsible unless the seller also undertakes marketing activity themselves.

4. The responsibility to have a pack is triggered at the first point of marketing of the Property, that is when an estate agent or a seller begins letting potential buyers know about the availability of a specific property, for example by telephoning a potential buyer.

5. Where a property is remarketed more than 12 months after the original first point of marketing, a new first point of marketing is created.

6. If the property is taken off the market because the seller has accepted an offer to buy it, the first point of marketing remains the point at which marketing originally started if the sale does not proceed (e.g. it has fallen through) and the property is put back on the market. This applies so long as the property is put back on the market within 28 days of the offer, or its acceptance, being withdrawn.

7. Only documents that are prescribed as either required or authorised may be included in home information packs. Only documents that are mentioned in the Home Information Pack Regulations 2007 can be included. Where a document which is neither required nor authorised to be included in a home information pack is provided to a potential buyer in close proximity to a pack or pack document, it must be separated and clearly distinguished from the pack or pack document. Advertising information must not be included in the pack. This is to ensure that consumers receive only official, objective information as part of the pack, and do not receive advertising or marketing information about services that they might believe are officially endorsed, or feel pressured to accept. This does not include information advertising goods and services that already forms part of a required or authorised document. The intention is not to require pre-existing information to be “blanked out”, for example.

8. Authorised documents and information do not have to be provided in home information packs. However, it is strongly recommended that these documents are included in the pack where they are relevant to the property and/or its sale and are likely to be of interest to potential buyers. In particular, it is strongly recommended that a home condition report, home contents and home use information are included. Authorised documents or information may be added to the pack at any time, but it is recommended that where available they are included from the outset. This is important because failure to include in the pack authorised documents where they are relevant could delay the sale of the property and prevent the seller or potential buyer achieving the full benefits the home information pack.

9. It is the duty of a responsible person to have a home information pack which complies with the Regulations. The home information pack must be composed of original documents or true copies of them. “True copy” is not defined in the Regulations but it is understood that a true copy does not have to be an exact copy, but should be a copy reproduced with sufficient accuracy to enable the copy to be understood and the meaning of the document to be unaffected. In the case of a map, plan or drawing in which colours mark boundaries or other features, for example, those colours must be reproduced accurately (e.g. a green colour used in the original must be identifiable as green in the copy) but some variation in colour tone is acceptable, provided this does not affect the comprehension of the document. This should allow for variability in the reproduction of colours by photocopying machines and printers etc. Similarly, enlarged or reduced copies of documents (for example an A4 copy of an A3 document) are acceptable so long as they are clear and legible and the meaning is unaffected by the enlargement or reduction.

10. The index should be the first document in the Pack and this should be followed by the Energy Performance Certificate . The remaining documents can be presented in any order that the seller wishes.

Note - The documents below marked with an * must be not less than 3 months old when marketing begins documents marked with a ** must be not less than 12 months old but any other pack documents may be more than three months old at the time marketing begins. However, they must be the most recent versions of these documents

11. The regulations provide that the following documents that are required to be included in the HIP when marketing begins. The relevant documents are:
a. The Home Information Pack index;
b. The Energy Performance Certificate and recommendation report**;
c. An Interim Energy Assessment (if the Property is being built but not yet finished)**;
d. A Predicted Energy Assessment (if the Property is to be built but construction has not yet started)**;
e. A Sale Statement;
f. Evidence of title for registered estates*; and
g. An Official search of the index map for unregistered properties*.

Note – If documents b, c or d are not available within 14 days of the date of delivery of a request for them then the Pack can be completed provided the same conditions as set out in paragraph 14 a to d below are met.

12. the following documents that are required to be included in the HIP may be added within 28 days of marketing beginning:

a. for unregistered properties, the documents on which the seller is relying on to demonstrate title for the purposes of the sale;

b. for commonhold sales, the documents described in Schedule 5 of the Regulations;

c. for leasehold sales:

i. A copy of the Lease. If this is a Land Registry Official Copy it must be no more than 3 months old

ii. A copy of any Rules or Regulations made by the Landlord or a Management Company or anyone else responsible for the Management f the Property

iii. statements or summaries of service charges supplied in respect of the property relating to the 36 months preceding the first point of marketing

iv. the most recent requests for payment of or financial contribution where made in respect of the property for service charges, ground rent and insurance premiums, relating to the 12 months preceding the first point of marketing.

v. Any occupational Leases for a part of the Property that will be tenanted on completion.

vi. the names and addresses of (i) the Landlord; and (ii) the managing agents; and (iii) anyone else who manages the Property

vii. where section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985(a) applies to any qualifying works or qualifying long term agreement in respect of the property , a summary of—

          1. such works or agreements in relation to which a relevant contribution (or any part of a relevant contribution)

              has not been paid by the first point of marketing;

          2. the total or estimated total cost of such works or agreements;

          3. the expected remaining relevant contribution of a lessee of the property;

          4. the date or estimated date that such works or agreements will be concluded; and

          5. the date or estimated date that the remaining relevant contribution will be required of a lessee of the property.

d. A search report which records the results of a search of the local land charges register*;

e. A search report which records the results of a search of local authority records (local enquiries)*; and

f. A drainage and water search*

13. The period of 28 days should be regarded as a maximum, and where it is reasonable to expect the document to be delivered earlier then all reasonable efforts should be made to achieve this (“all reasonable efforts” would include following up requests and, where necessary and possible, seeking to obtain the document from an alternative source).

14. Where, despite all reasonable efforts, the document has not been obtained within 28 days and a. the responsible person continues to use all reasonable efforts to obtain it and; b. the home information pack index is updated to show progress on the actions being taken to obtain the missing documents and; c. the document is included in the Pack as soon as possible once it is obtained and; d. proof that the document has been requested is included in the pack; Then an incomplete Pack will satisfy the Regulations.

15. When documents are added or removed from the pack or there is a delay in obtaining documents, the index must be updated or annotated accordingly. This applies to both required and authorised documents.

16. There is no requirement for the contents of the home information pack to be updated during the marketing of the property except where the responsible person obtains or creates a further version of a required document already in the pack.

17. Where a document is amended or superseded later in the marketing process, the date at which it is added will be considered the “first point of marketing” so far as that document is concerned. This will be relevant for time sensitive documents (e.g. required searches) which are subject to age limitations when marketing begins.

18. There is no requirement to supply the original home information pack or pack document to a potential buyer. A responsible person must provide a potential buyer with a copy of the pack on request and may charge a reasonable sum for the cost of making a paper copy and sending it to a potential buyer. The 2004 Act does not define “reasonable” but they must bear a reasonable relationship to the cost of copying or posting. Therefore, a profit should not be made by virtue of charges made under this provision.

19. It is expected that copies of packs will often be provided electronically where the potential buyer consents to receiving it in that form (see section 156(11) of the 2004 Act). There is no provision in the 2004 Act for charging for electronic copies of pack documents. In the absence of any specific power to charge for electronic copies, we understand that to mean that potential buyers cannot be charged for a copy of the Pack that is provided in this format (on a cd, dvd or memory stick, for example). However where a paper copy is provided and an electronic copy is provided in addition then the provision of the electronic copy is outside of the regulations which are satisfied by the paper copy and a reasonable charge for the electronic copy can be made.

20. The Home Information Pack legislation is only intended to cover the sale of properties that will, or could, be used as a permanent residential dwelling by the owner without any adaptation. There are likely to be instances where a residential property is being sold, but the circumstances of the sale indicate that it is not to be used as a permanent residential dwelling or the sale is unlikely to form part of a chain of transactions in the normal housing market. Thus a number of exceptions from the home information pack duties are necessary. The following provides some examples of residential and non-residential properties using the interpretation principles set out in regulations:

Example of property being marketed for sale	Residential or non-residential property?
Vacant property last used as a shop and to continue to be used as a shop	Non-residential
Ex-school which has been converted into a home	Residential
Shop due to be converted for residential use by the time the sale is complete	Residential
Property last used as a family home but will be converted into an office by the time the sale is complete.	Non-residential

Properties used for home working are considered residential and therefore the home information pack duties would apply

Examples of residential properties by virtue of home-working

A house where the loft has been converted into an architect’s studio (with no special adaptation) for use by the owner.

A house with a separate garage or shed which has been converted into an office for use by an owner and which is intended to be occupied and enjoyed together with the house.

A house with an out-building used for operating the owner’s car cleaning service where the out-building is intended to be occupied and enjoyed together with the house.

A house where a post office/small shop is run by the owner from the front room. Customers gain access via the same route used for accessing the residential part of the property.

A house where one room has been converted into an office and is used by the owner to work from home.

A house where a room has been adapted into a hair salon for use by the owner.

A house where no adaptation has taken place but where one room is used for private music lessons conducted by the owner.

A house where an outbuilding is used by the owner to store gardening or building equipment which they use for work (e.g. as a landscape gardener).

21. Other excepted Properties are:

a. Properties with 3 bedrooms or less.

b. Properties that are only able to be used as seasonal and holiday accommodation

c. Properties where one residential property is marketed for sale as ancillary to (i.e. intended to be occupied and enjoyed with) one or more buildings, or areas of land, used for non-residential purposes.

d. Properties which can be used for both residential and non-residential purposes simultaneously. There are likely to be many instances where a use which would otherwise be home working is in fact “dual use”. This is likely to occur where the owner is not using the property and hence is not working at home (e.g. a house with a separate garage or shed which has been converted into an office for use but is leased to another person or business).

e. Portfolios of Properties this is where the seller does not intend to accept an offer for any of the properties in isolation from the others. For example, the home information pack duties would not apply when selling a block of flats, a group of holiday homes or an entire new development.

f. Unsafe unoccupied properties.

g. properties due to be demolished

h. put on the market before 1 August 2007 provided that

i. marketing activity has taken place at some time during the period starting on 1 August 2006 and ending on 31 July;

ii. this marketing activity was genuinely taken with the intention of selling the property before 1 August

iii. the marketing activity was sustained to a reasonable extent during the period in question.