23 Jun 2008
Breaking News
AHIPP challenges local authorities over HIPs
The Association of Home Information
Pack Providers (AHIPP) has challenged local authorities to sort out their
handling of home information packs (HIPs) or face the
consequences in due course.
HIPs are presently subject to temporary measures put in
the place by the Government that are scheduled to expire at the end of the
year. One of these measures allows private sector search companies to use
insurance to cover risks to consumers where local authorities withhold
information from them to compile full searches.
The body said that should this arrangement
expire at the end of the year, local authorities would find themselves subject
to massive pressure and negative publicity if they were not in a position to
provide access to the information that private search companies needed to do
their job.
Mike Ockenden,
director general of AHIPP, said while it was important to acknowledge that
there were some excellent authorities that did not restrict access to the
information that they maintained, they were in the minority.
He explained: Some 75% of all authorities do
not provide access in accordance with the Government’s own guidelines and the
clock is ticking with only six months to go to the end of the year. I will be
writing to the chief executives of those authorities to provide a clear
challenge to sort this unacceptable situation out.
Courtesy of Mortgage Solutions
There is no good reason to scrap the home information packs (Hips) scheme now that so much time and money has been spent setting it up, a conveyancer has suggested.
Managing director of conveyancing firm Convex.net Duncan Samuel said he did not agree with the recommendation in the Carsberg report this week that Hips had been of no benefit and should be made voluntary.
Ratehr, he suggested, while the industry had
warned the government that the benefits would be few, some "marginal"
advantages were apparent.
On the time taken to sell homes since Hips was introduced, he stated:
"Last year our average time from receipt of contract papers to completion
was 43 days and this year it has been 38, so there has been an improvement of five days in our
experience."
For reasons like this it was worth persisting with Hips rather than scrapping it and declaring all the time and money spent setting up the system to be wasted.
The deputy director general of The Association of Home Information Pack Providers Paul Broadhead claimed this week that research had shown Hips to be speeding up the selling process by an average of 12 days.
The above story is copyright Adfero Ltd(News Agency) and is taken from Knight Frank.com
Thursday 19th June 2008
Yorkshire v Lancashire Twenty20
Wednesday evening
proved to live up to all expectations. The game was miraculously on, even
though the rain came and went and then came again. Lancashire recorded a
respectable 150 and early on
Monday 16th June 2008
Corporate
On Friday 15th
August we will once again be entertaining as Leeds Rhinos take on local rivals
Castleford Tigers at Headingley.
Wednesday 11th June 2008
Government news releases
Minister of State Caroline Flint today made a statement to the House of Commons on the implementation of Home Information Packs. Read a copy of today's press release on the page above and a copy of the statement here.
The Code for Sustainable Homes. 1 May 2008. From 1 May 2008 it is compulsory for
every new home in
For more information go to www.communities.gov.uk/thecode
Tuesday 10th June 2008
Corporate Cricket Evening
On the 18th June Fusion will be
taking customers out to the eagerly anticipated Twenty20 match between
Yorkshire and
Wednesday 05th June 2008
We go Live!
We are delighted
to announce today the launch of our new Fusion HIPs
website. We firmly believe this will add value to our growing reputation and
provide a useful tool for both existing and new customers.