| In some circumstances Home Information Packs may not be required for certain properties, these are outlined briefly as follows:
Properties where there is no marketing (e.g. sale to member of your family)
Non-residential properties
Seasonal and holiday accommodation
Mixed sales (e.g. shop with flat)
Right to buy and similar sales
Sales of portfolios of properties
Properties not being sold with completely vacant possession
Unsafe properties and properties to be demolished.
New Build Properties
Sales of homes built to the most recent Building Regulations (Regulation 17C, Part L, 2006) are exempt from the need to have a Pack under the first Home Information Packs commencement order. This is because the software used to produce EPCs for these buildings (using SAP) is currently in development. They will be brought into the requirements through a separate commencement order once the software is available (probably at the beginning of 2008).
Sales of homes built to previous Building Regulations (i.e. pre 2006) will need a Pack and EPC (or Predicted Energy Assessment) from 1 August if they have 4 or more bedrooms and are marketed for sale as such on or after that date.
The EPC for these buildings will be produced using the currently available RdSAP software. From January 2008, all new homes, regardless of which Buildings Regulations they were constructed under, will have to have a SAP based EPC produced as part of the Building Regulations sign off process.
The developer or builder should know which building regulations applied if there is any doubt about whether a HIP is required for a particular property.
As most new homes are sold 'off plan' before they're built, there might be differences between Packs for these sales and Packs provided for properties sold as completed dwellings. For example, the searches for the property and title information may cover a wider area if the property has not yet been allocated an address and individual titles have not yet been created.
In all circumstances we would advise you to consult a legal professional to establish whether a pack is necessary or not |
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