Home Information Packs

Liability: Is it the provider who is liable

The competent provider is liable for any misinformation within the pack. For example, search provider for searches, Home Inspectors for Home Condition Reports, seller for property information form, etc.

There’s no legal opinion within the Home Information Pack
There is no requirement or authorisation to include in the pack a legal assessment of the pack contents, so this isn’t something that could be included in the Pack, but there’s nothing to prevent such assessments being provided alongside it.

Once a Home Information Pack is produced, who has the responsibility for ‘policing’ the expiry dates, and re-producing the expired components Also, at what point after sale agreed would any of the components have to be re-produced, e.g. if expired 1 week before sale completes
None of the Home Information Pack components will have an expiry date. The main required item in the Home Information Pack that is time-sensitive is local searches.

We need to know the Home Information Pack delivery will not default to hard paper copies as with 1.8 million Home Information Packs per annum, and only a single copy on paper some 225 million pages will be used, c. 2000 trees.
It is up to Home Information Pack providers to determine the best way of providing their product to the customer. The legislation provides for Home Information Packs to be entirely electronic, except when a buyer requests a paper copy.

What are the Home Information Pack requirements for new conversions i.e. barns or a house that was converted into flats
If individual properties are being marketed then they do require a Home Information Pack - the converted barn therefore does, and so do individual flats. There is an exception for portfolios of properties, so if all the flats were being sold as a package, then no Pack would be required. Exceptions to the duties are set out in the Regulations.