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Fully portable Home Information Pack - from only £299...
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Government extend HIP to all domestic homes...
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greenlifesolutions receives NHER accreditation..
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greenlifesolutions now able to offer full Home Information Pack (HIP) in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex
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From April 2008, the government will begin to roll out EPCs for newly built homes, as well as across commercial property for sale, rent or construction. By October 2008 all public buildings will have a display certificate.

Energy Performance Certificates will be required for all newly built homes from the 6th April 2007 as per the table below:

NEW BUILDS AND DEVELOPMENTS

• New homes built under the pre-2006 Building Regulations are not exempt and will require a HIP. New homes marketed "off-plan" before they are physically complete will not have a full Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) as these can only produced following a physical inspection of a completed building. In these cases, the HIP will contain a Predicted Energy Assessment (PEA).

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why are homes built under the 2006 Building Regulations exempt?

Because these properties need to be assessed using SAP (Standard Assessment Procedure) and the EPC software necessary to do this has not been fully developed. Homes build under the pre 2006 building regulations are not exempt and the EPCs for these homes should be produced using RdSAP (Reduced data SAP), but once the SAP software is available and SAP assessors are accredited, SAP can be used to create EPCs for these homes as well.

What about a conversion being marketed as a completed dwelling?

For conversions that are complete when marketed starts, an EPC will be needed and should be produced using the currently available RdSAP (Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure) software.
Where a new build sold off plan is then resold once it has been completed. Will it need a new HIP, even though no one has lived in it?

Sales of new homes between developers, say, do not trigger the requirement for a HIP, although if such sales occur after 1 October 2008 they will need an EPC for each of the homes being sold. A sale to someone for owner occupation would require a HIP (if none of the exceptions apply). If that person then sold it on, a further HIP would be required even if the seller had never actually lived in the property.

Where a new home is purchased and immediately put back on the market by someone who bought it as an investment can they reuse the pack given to them by the developer when they bought the property?
The HIP would need a new sale statement as it will be a different seller. Other documents could be recycled provided that they are in date and comply with the regulations. For example, the searches could be reused if they are no more than three months old when marketing begins and confer third party contractual rights on the next buyer and their mortgage lender.

A new build sold as part of a commercial transaction, will it require a HIP?

A pack may be required where a residential property is put on the market for sale to the public or a section of the public - and none of the exceptions in Part 6 of the Home Information Pack Regulations apply. Regulation 30, for example, exempts portfolio sales where two or more properties are sold as one lot and where the marketing makes it clear that bids for individual properties will not be considered.
Can a sale be completed and contracts exchanged in cases where a full HIP does not exist (i.e. a property sold off plan where the buyer is happy with what they see and do not want to wait for a partial HIP?)
If the property is marketed it will need a HIP. If the HIP is incomplete at this stage for some reason, the HIP duties would cease when marketing stops so the buyer could agree not to proceed with it. However an EPC will still need to be given to the buyer if the building is completed before exchange of contracts, even though marketing has stopped.