Avoid The Home information pack HIPs or home sellers pack.
Under planning law, it is about whether rooms are habitable, not whether they are bedrooms or not. So HIPs regulations can be avoided on any size of home by using Rooms..Not bedroooms.
Therefore call your bedrooms, rooms you are HIPs and EPC free on all homes, 1 bed, 2 bed, 3 bed and 4 bedrooms and larger properties.
With advice on Estate agents contracts and how you can be legally HIPs free after 1st August 2007, plus the energy performance certificate.
See our post on Hips-the-facts-not-fiction/
This 4 bedroom home sold for the asking price and not a mention of bedrooms.
Home for sale
Living room dining room, reception cloaks, fitted kitchen, all the usual things except when it came to upstairs.
This home has en-suite plus bathroom and 4 rooms.
He received 12 calls and the house was sold today for the asking price of £275000.
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Estate agents Contract
We also have a “Which” Estate agents contract for you to use. This contract is in plain English and shows everything up front, so no nasty shocks, just print it off and fill it in. Estate agents contract.
Always always instruct estate agents on Sole agency only this way they only get there commission if they introduce the buyer..
We recommend that Estate agent charges for commission should be under 1% if they refuse then find another agent who will.
- You will not pay them if you sell your house yourself, (private sale) and you can still advertise on the Internet if you want to.
According to research by Which?. Estate agents Contracts can be badly worded and misleading.
It warns people to watch out for terms, which could catch them out.
- For example, if you opt for sole selling rights, and then find a buyer yourself, you will still have to pay the estate agent.
- Another one to watch out for, if you are a seller, is a “ready, willing and able purchaser contract”.
You will have to pay once a buyer, who is able to exchange unconditional contracts, is found.
This still applies if you withdraw your property before the sale is completed.
In this scenario, you may also be charged for the cost of ‘For Sale’ boards and advertising.
If you let you Estate agent compile your Home information pack or HIP.
This will mean that:
(a) he will charge you more than otherwise for selling the house.
(b) you won’t easily be able to change agents because the HIP will be tied into them in some way – or you will have to pay for it in order to change agents.
(c) you will be “encouraged” to go to some conveyancer in a remote location that has a deal with the agent and the HIP provider and the agent will probably get a kick-back from the conveyancer that YOU WILL BE PAYING FOR.
