home inspector.co.uk newspages..

HIPs roll-out proceeds confidently

Over the last fortnight I have held 2 meetings with representatives of the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) and can report good progress with the roll-out of the Home Information Pack (HIP).

The clear message from Government is that Home Information Packs (HIPs) implementation is proceeding without any major hitches and they have gained in confidence in seeing the infrastructure behind HIPs working, including the accreditation schemes and those involved in the supply chain. However, they remain determined to ensure the roll-out remains trouble-free so they are carefully monitoring the impact of Home Information Packs on the market.

Here is a summary of the current statistics relating to Home Information Packs (HIPs) and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs):

• It is currently taking on average 4-5 days to produce a HIP
• The average cost of the HIP is only £300 to £350 plus VAT
• 143,000 energy performance certificates (EPCs) have been lodged since 1 August (this includes EPCs produced for social landlords)
• The average time taken to produce an EPC is between 2.5 - 4 days

During our meetings with the Communities and Local Government we continue to lobby for the final phase of HIPs (to cover 2 bedroomed homes and smaller) to be rolled-out without further delay. We have made it clear to Government that many of our Domestic Energy Assessors and Home inspector graduates will continue to remain frustrated by the artificially low numbers of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) available due to phased implementation and will only be satisfied when the entire market becomes available.

The-energy-portal

We are at a time of very unusual market conditions brought about as a result of a variety of factors unrelated to HIPs, including interest rate changes, the end to fixed rate mortgages for some consumers, UK stock market uncertainty, concerns about sub-prime lending in the USA and the Northern Rock issue.

The hesitant market conditions have also reduced the overall amount of work available to EPC panels including the-energy-portal. Despite this slow down in activity the-energy-portal continues to develop relationships with HIP providers and other businesses, as a result of which we are starting to see an encouraging increase in EPC instructions. We remain clear in our stated objectives to continue the growth of this business exchange and to provide DEAs with a steadily increasing amount of EPC instructions as we look towards 2008.

Not yet registered with the energy portal? For further information visit us at www.the-energy-portal.com or call 0845 4702 290

Property-Careers.com

For those Domestic Energy Assessor graduates who have expressed an interest in pursuing a career in mainstream surveying via the Home Inspector conversion module will be pleased to hear that we will be launching our course ready for the first trainees to get underway in the New Year. If you have not yet registered your interest or would like to receive information regarding the course please contact our training team on 0800 731 6804

Stephen Callaghan, Chief Executive of property-careers.com