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Public not aware of  imminent changes in the buying and selling of houses

Britain's house-buying process will undergo a revolution in June, but 75 per cent of the country know next to nothing about it, a survey reveals.

Home sellers will be required to provide home information packs (HIPs) to buyers which give details on a property's ownership, its energy efficiency and other information, from June 1.

Unfortunately, most Britons are unaware of this.

Britain's biggest property portal, Primemove, carried out a survey of its website visitors which found 76 per cent of them either had no or very little knowledge about HIPs.

Four out of 10 of them incorrectly believed the packs had been scrapped completely following the government's decision to drop the mandatory requirement for home condition reports (HCRs) to be included in them.

These reports let the buyer know about the property's level of maintenance.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors wants introduction of parts of the packs delayed, because it considers the property industry not ready for them. Chancellor Gordon Brown's budget speech last week  hinted this might happen.

'It is clear that the majority of the UK public has no idea what is going on and what it is going to mean for the buying and selling process of houses in the UK,' Henry Pryor, founder of Primemove, said. 'While the government flounders over the final content of the HIP the consumer gets more confused. Even the official launch date of June 1 still seems to be up for debate.'

The Association of Home Information Pack Providers  hopes an awareness campaign it launched on Sunday  will fill this knowledge gap. 'The commencement of the awareness campaign for the public will be long running up and beyond June 1,' Mike Ockenden, the director-general of the association, said.

The  association continues to press for HCRs to be mandatory and the government says this might still happen. Mr Ockenden considered market pressures meant many sellers would include HCRs in their packs anyway. 'Estate agents will see how helpful it will be in having HCRs as part of the pack when it comes to marketing these properties,' he said.

The Primemove survey found 82 per cent of its visitors would ignore the energy performance certificates, a compulsory element of the HIP. These certificates tell buyers about how much energy is used and lost in running a home.

Mr Ockenden insisted buyers and sellers would take these certificates seriously, because they would gain financially from insulating lofts, lagging boilers and introducing other energy-saving measures.

'If it translates into fiscal consequences, then they will be wanting to do so,' he said. 'The chancellor has said that if people do make environmental improvements, then they can expect to see financial gains, such as lower council tax payments or something similar.'



Britons know little about home data packs