The Home Condition Report, Home Inspectors and the Home Information Pack

What are the aims of the Home Information Pack

The stated aims set out in the Bill which preceded the Housing Act were to make the home buying and selling process:

• More transparent. Enabling buyers to make better informed offers based upon "Up-front" information, provided at the beginning of the process rather than near the end;
• More certain. The greater the certainty to the process, the less adversarial the buying and selling environment;
• Faster. To reduce the period of time between offer and legal commitment;
• More consumer friendly. The Pack is intended to reduce avoidable and unnecessary time and financial wastage resulting from the high level of failed transactions;

It was therefore the government's intention to change the process dramatically and to bring forward this legislation as part of an integrated reform package, which also includes:

• NLIS (National Land Information Service). This now provides local authority searches, including Local Land Charges, and a range other services through the holders of channel licences granted by the Lord Chancellor's Department. This is having the effect of reducing search times significantly;
• Electronic conveyancing;
• Lender reforms, including in-principle mortgage offers.