Exchange Ready HIPs – “All Mouth No Trousers”

Fridaysmove would challenge any of the Home Information Pack providers currently marketing “exchange ready HIPs” to let us with any documentary evidence that they have provided a single Home Information Pack which has directly resulted in a transaction being ready to exchange within 48 hours of a buyer being found.

No matter how comprehensive the Home Information Pack and whatever further documentation, authorised or otherwise, are added to the Home Information Pack stick a comprehensive set of papers in front of 100 law firms and you will undoubtedly receive 100 different sets of additional enquiries and more than 100 reasons why the paperwork is not quite ready to be in a position to exchange.

As a utopian concept, it is admirable , but in practice it is simply not achievable. That does not mean to say that Home Information Pack providers or conveyancing lawyers should not aspire to review the legal documentation within the Home Information Pack and identify problems in advance of the buyer being found, such as lack of planning permission and defects in title but it is something quite unpalatable about pulling the wool over the eyes of innocent sellers or estate agents who may well be lured by the representation of the “exchange ready” Home Information Pack.

Ironically, it is Home Information Pack providers and not conveyancing lawyers that are using this as a marketing gimmick. Perhaps the Association of Home Information Pack Providers which pride themselves on protecting consumers’ interest should have a long hard look at some of the representations given by its members.