Marketing with an incomplete pack

The HIP Regulations state that a Pack must be compliant with their provisions and that means the pack must contain the ‘required’ documents and information and may contain the ‘authorised documents and information.

These must be in the pack at the First Point of Marketing (FPM) – the day and time when the property is first marketed to the public.

Regulations 16 to 20 relax these strict requirements to a certain extent provided that the conditions in those Regulations are met. 

Firstly, a pack must always contain the Index, The Sale Statement, official copies of the registers and filed plan for registered land and an Index Map search for unregistered land.    It must also include the Property Information Questionnaire.  There is no relaxation of the rules for these elements.

The other components may be added to the pack at a later date provided that –

• a request for the missing document or information was delivered before the FPM;

•  the Responsible Person (the estate agent or, if none, the seller) reasonably believes that the missing document or information  will be available by the 28th day after the FPM and makes continuing efforts to obtain it;

•  reasonable efforts are made to obtain the documents or information before the 28 day period expires;

•  the Index contains details of the missing document or information, why it is missing, efforts being made to obtain it, when it is expected to be available plus to whom and when the request was made;

•  the missing document or information is added to the pack as soon as it is available; and

• a statement certifying that the correct steps have been taken is included in the pack.

The steps referred to in paragraph 6 detail how and to whom the request should be made and the date when it can be supposed to have been delivered (depending on how it was delivered) and the statement must certify that these steps have been followed to the letter.

The documents and information covered by the relaxation are –

• Unregistered title documents;
• Searches;
• Leasehold documents and information
• Sustainablity certificate.

Except during the period to 6 April 2009, the rules for proceeding to market a property if the Energy Performance Certificate is missing are tighter.

Regulation 16 allows this but only if –

• 14 days elapse between the EPC being requested and the FPM;

• continued efforts are made to obtain the EPC within 28 days of the FPM;

• the Index notes that the EPC is missing, details why it is missing and the efforts being made to obtain it, when it is expected to be available plus information about the request that has been made

• the EPC is added to the pack as soon as it is available and the Index is amended accordingly

• a statement certifying that the correct steps have been taken to obtain the EPC is included in the pack.

The Index must be amended whenever a missing document or item of information is added to the pack and, as the missing document or information must be added as soon as it is available, this could require the pack Index to be amended a number of times.  It is not permitted to wait for all the missing documents /information before completing the pack in one update.

The regulations also acknowledge that, particularly with regard to unregistered land and leasehold properties, some documents and information may well be completely unobtainable because they no longer exist or cannot be obtained from or created by anyone.

If this is the case the pack will be regarded as complying with the Regulations provided that the responsible person has made all reasonable efforts to track down the missing elements and reasonably believes they are unobtainable as above. 

The Index must state what documents are unobtainable and so are missing from the pack giving the reason for this. 

Save for during the period up to 6 April 2009, it is unlikely that you would be advised to market your property with an incomplete pack where this will increase costs.  It can also cause confusion among interested buyers – there is no obligation to provide a buyer with another copy pack if they received an earlier incomplete one.