Prohibited documents/information

The HIP must contain nothing other than Required and Authorised documents and information: advertising and marketing information is specifically prohibited although trade names can be used to describe building material used or to be used.  The names of sewerage and water authorities and of search companies will not be regarded as prohibited information.

Unobtainable documents

If certain categories of documents are unobtainable, through the passage of time or other unavoidable reason, the pack can be issued without them after reasonable efforts have been made to locate or create them.

Updating the pack

Required documents and information must be updated while Authorised documents/information may be updated.  The Index must record any changes to the pack and give full details about any missing elements.

The date any updated or missing document is added to the pack is the FPM for that document until the pack as a whole acquires a new FPM.

Seller’s accuracy check

The seller must be supplied with a copy of the pack to check its accuracy.

Prescribed terms

The Regulations provide that for certain elements of the pack the provider must include certain terms in the supply contract.  Further, if terms less favourable to a consumer are included these will make the particular element non-compliant with the result that the entire pack will be non-compliant and a PCN might follow.

Prescribed forms

There are no prescribed forms although the Law Society TransAction forms are acceptable for inclusion in the pack.  These forms have recently been updated to meet the HIP requirements.