Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any debt secured on it
HIPs suspended with immediate effect |
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Thursday, 20 May 2010 14:06 |
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Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps today announced that with immediate effect, they are suspending the requirement for homeowners to provide a Home Information Pack when selling their homes. Pickles today laid an Order suspending HIPs in England and Wales with immediate effect, pending primary legislation for a permanent abolition. The Secretary of State says he has taken this swift action in order to avoid uncertainty and prevent a slump in an already fragile housing market. He believes HIPs are currently holding back the housing market because sellers are having to fork-out extra cash, sometimes hundreds of pounds, just to be able to put their home up for sale.The government believes suspending HIPs will reduce the cost of selling a home, remove a layer of regulation from the process and provide a welcome help to the housing market during the recovery.
Sellers will still be required to commission, but won’t need to have received, an EPC before marketing their property, and the government will consider how the EPC can play its part in the new drive for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy.Pickles says: “The expensive and unnecessary Home Information Pack has increased the cost and hassle of selling homes and is stifling a fragile housing market. “That’s why I am taking emergency action to suspend the HIP, bringing down the cost of selling a home and removing unnecessary regulation from the home buying process. This swift and decisive action will send a strong message to the fragile housing market and prevent uncertainty for both home sellers and buyers. HIPs are history. This action will encourage sellers back into the market, and help the market as a whole and the economy recover.”
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