On 8 May 2008, a statement was made by the Minister of State, The Rt Hon Caroline Flint MP, amending the Home Information Pack Regulations.
Currently, the Regulations allow a property to be marketed without a Home Information Pack (HIP) where the documents required for inclusion in the HIP have been commissioned and paid for, or arrangement for payment has been made and the documents are expected to arrive within 28 days.
The temporary first day marketing provision above has been extended from 1 June to 31 December 2008.
Regulations to extend the temporary provision relating to leasehold properties have also been extended to 31 December 2008. What this means is that the HIP still only has to include the “Lease”. Other leasehold documents, for example, rules and regulations made for the purposes of managing the property, written summary or statements of service charges, recent requests for service charges, ground rent and insurance etc are “authorised” but not required.
In the period up to 31 December 2008, a working group of key industry representatives will be looking into the type of leasehold information that should be required within a HIP and the form this should take and practical steps for helping to establish good practice for landlord and managing agents in the provision of leasehold information.
Final measures are due to be prepared and introduced from 1 January 2009.
