So Hips Are Banished!!!

Well I can’t deny that a warm glow surrounded me last week when the announcement came of the immediate suspension of HIPs. To be fair it was tinged with some sympathy for friends and colleagues I know working in the HIP industry who had invested large sums of money to qualify and supply this ill-founded legislation and who have been left high and dry as a result.
 
From a technical perspective, lenders, agents, solicitors and anyone else with a smattering of knowledge on the housing industry opposed the original and watered-down proposals on HIPs. Everyone involved felt that it failed to deal with speeding up the home buying process which anyone who has been involved in a chain in the last year will be aware that it failed as miserably as predicted. It has been positive to see the new government take such prompt action though.
 
They have retained the need to get an EPC (energy performance certificate), which is reasonable enough in light of the KYOTO Agreement we are obligated to, but thankfully this doesn’t to be completed before putting a property up for sale, so it won’t slow down the moving process.
 
Whether the government will wow me by introducing something that I have long championed for, which is some form of deposit system for buyers and sellers who agree a sale, is sadly much less likely I suspect.
 
In more exciting news, the second episode of Imagine TV is now screening on our home page. This week, in addition to all the delights we promised you with Imagine TV, we have an EPC offer for anyone buying or letting a property through us. That offer is only available to those of you with the magic password. The password that’s divulged in Episode 2 www.imagine-group.co.uk