Suspension of Hips 'may benefit buy to let landlords'

21 May 2010

Written by Steve Olejnik.

The Department for Communities and Local Government recently announced the suspension of the requirement to produce a Home Information Pack (Hip) on the sale of a house, which could make it easier and cheaper for buy to let landlords looking to sell a property to do so.

Newly appointed housing minister Grant Shapps and communities secretary Eric Pickles have ceased the need for Hips with immediate effect, pending a permanent abolition.

Action has been taken on this matter, the department stated, to prevent a fall in the property market and to make it less expensive and burdensome to sell a house.

The government division said the legislation had been stunting growth in the sector and sellers were having to pay more, sometimes hundreds of pounds, just to enter the market.

Gillian Charlesworth, director of communications at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, welcomed the decision, saying that Hips had not succeeded in addressing the problems in home buying they were originally intended to reduce.

"Rather than seeing the announcement as the death of Hips it should become the start of a new process that brings real change to people's experience of buying a home," she said.

Why not take a look at our best Buy to Let mortgages and make an enquiry online now.