The HIP can be held in electronic form or in the traditional way on paper.

When a residential property is to be sold, and subject to the transitional arrangements (Fact Sheet 20) a HIP must be in existence BEFORE the property can be marketed through an estate agent or by the seller personally.

The responsible person, be it the estate agent or the seller, must be able to provide a prospective buyer with a copy of the pack subject to certain conditions (see Fact sheet 13). A pack can only be supplied as an electronic copy if the buyer agrees to accept the HIP in this format.

The various components that make up the content of the HIP can be found in the Regulations in SI 2007 No 1667 dated 11 June 2007 – The Home Information Pack (No 2) Regulations 2007 and varied by a number of amending statutory instruments. These Regulations lay down two categories of documents which are the only ones that can be included in the pack - Required documents that MUST be included and Authorised documents that MAY be included.

There are Required documents for all types of residential property (Fact sheet 2) and extra documents will be needed for leasehold properties (Fact sheet 3) and for commonhold properties (Fact sheet 4).

There are specific Required documents for a HIP for a New Home or sale off-plan whether it is freehold, leasehold or commonhold (Fact sheet 9).

Authorised documents vary depending on whether the property is freehold, leasehold or commonhold or whether it is a new property.

Only Required and Authorised documents are to be included in a HIP.  All others are prohibited from being included.

It is however possible to give other documents and information to a potential buyer where it relates to the property and may be of interest to a buyer – these are referred to as ‘close proximity documents’.

It must be made clear that these are not part of the pack.