Just 99 days before home information packs (Hips) become mandatory for all involved in the buying and selling process, a new war of words has broken out between experts in the housing industry.
The scheme has been implemented in order to stem the £1 million lost every day in the housing market from collapsed deals but has been beset by a myriad of problems.
Yesterday the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) claimed there were still issues which needed to be sorted out with the packs. It warned there was not enough time to do so with proper testing and questioned whether there would be enough assessors to compile the obligatory energy performance certificate.
"There are still far too many unknowns about the potential market impacts," said Jackie Bennett, CML's head of policy.
Meanwhile the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) concurred. A Rics spokesman criticised the implementation of a scheme that had "most of the stuffing removed", referring to the optional status of the home condition report (HCR), previously believed to be one of the essential documents in the pack.
Both organisations claim that the June 1st starting date should be postponed.
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