This Fact sheet is up to date at January 2009

The The contents of the HIP, both compulsory (Required) and voluntary (Authorised), are set out in the regulations contained in Statutory Instrument 2007 No 1667 as varied by a number of amending statutory instruments.

The Authorised documents for all properties are: 

• A Home Condition Report (see Fact sheet 8)

• Documentary evidence of any safety, building, repair or maintenance work carried out since the date of the HCR of the policy in the pack

• Any warranty against defects in the property relating to the building itself

• Any warranty, policy or guarantee relating to defects in design, building, completion or conversion of the property
• Information about the design or standard to which the property has or is being built 
• An accurate translation into any language of any pack document
• An additional version of any pack document in Braille or large print
• A summary/explanation of any pack document and legal advice on the pack and/or its contents
• Information to identify the property – description, photograph, map, plan etc
• Information as to the source of supply of a pack document and any complaints procedure relating to it
• Where title is registered, any documents referred to on the registers to that title
• Any additional search reports considered appropriate for the property
• Any search relating to a dwelling house or land in the vicinity of the property that   would be of interest to a buyer
• Any documents referred to in a search report
• Replies to the enquiries set out in schedule 10 to the Regulations – pre-contract enquiries as they were previously known

In addition to the Required documents and these Authorised documents, a seller can provide a buyer with other documents relating to the property.  It must be made clear however that these additional documents, given ‘in close proximity’ as they are referred to in the legislation, are not part of the HIP.

Just as it is a breach not to have a HIP or for the HIP not to comply in any way with the regulations concerning content etc so it would be a breach to include anything in the HIP that was neither Required nor Authorised or to fail to make clear that additional documents are not part of the pack.

Giving too much information and in the wrong way can be as dangerous as giving too little or in the wrong way.