HIPs are dead ?

Well just adjust your viewpoint to "signed a binding contract" in place of "bought" and there you go.

The damage for the seller could be equal or worse though depending on the circumstances (and buyers may be keen to offer on several properties). Note also that a contract can always be cancelled by mutual agreement of both parties. So if you enter a binding contract, it does not prevent you from asking the other party if they would agree to a break, however I can see no reason for their being any legal right for you to insist on it. Otherwise you make a legal nonsense of having a contract in the first place.

Here, for the most part, most viewings are publicly advertised half- hour slots where anyone can show up - some agents ask for photo-ID (driving licence), a few even take your name and phone number. From the agents pov a few extra browsers just make the really interested think that there's more competition than perhaps there is.

Same here, when I bought my previous house, but that was 1966. We moved in on the same day. They do things differently now :-(

And it's surprising how many drop by the wayside.

I've been to several auction viewings where about 30 people turned up (on 1 out of 4 viewings) and on auction day only two people are bidding.

tim

To me, a house, like most things in life is something that you buy after looking at it properly - searches, surveys, details of the deeds, covenants, etc. are all part of the looking at it phase. Only once you have the details should you be signing a contract, when you can seriously know whether to go ahead or not. Now there is no reason that the time to do this couldn't be reduced considerably ... surely with today's databases, it shouldn't take more than a week to check title, planning issues, etc. (if things were properly organised, all except the survey could be done immediately and at very low cost).

Asking the other party to let you back out is relying upon their goodwill - many people are not going to agree when they know that they'll be owed 10% of the offer price if the buyer is unable to complete!

SteveW

That's me out then, I still have a paper license.

Licence.

Me too and it is becoming a bit of PITA sometimes to prove ones identity for "money laundering" reasons etc. Not having a current passport (and the invalid ones are the nice big black ones not the silly little red one we have now) and being freelance I don't have works photo ID.

My wife and I had a significant amount of cash in a bond with Halifax. It came to fruition and we wished to reinvest. Realising that the numskulls would want proof of identity we went prepared with passports, driving licences and recent utility bills.

"That's insufficient. We require your bank account details and evidence of income." We both felt a little more than annoyed about this. I walked out and visited Nationwide next door to explain the situation. No problem. A few minutes later, Halifax were light of several £k and we had placed those savings with Nationwide without any of the nonsense.

We had many different accounts with Halifax. Now we have but two. In the next couple of months, we will have withdrawn our savings account and the house insurance to elsewhere.

Pillocks!

Indeed I agree its much slower than it needs to be (in fact it typically takes twice the time it did 30 years ago) which is daft when you consider the communications facilities we have now.

Or equally likely they are not going to agree if it means the whole chain collapses etc.

What will be better? The incompetent Tories are still in charge. Will we have PR? Er, er, no. What we needs is:

• PR introduced at Westminster - although to their credit Labour introduced them elsewhere.
• House of Lords fully democratic using PR - although to their credit Labour started the process
• Impose a limit or equal election budgets - the Tories had more than the Lib Dems and Labour combined. The election was not fair.
• Prevent foreign companies owning UK media - the USA will not have this at all in the US.
• Oxbridge prevented from ruling the corridors of power in government, military, judiciary, etc - we do not have a meritocracy despite having 99 universities, ruled by an elite privileged private school clique as the recent cabinet proved.
• Attack the landed aristocracy who own most of the UKs land - Land Valuation Tax, a Lib Dem favourite, would have sorted them out, naturally redistributed land and evened out the wealth in the UK.
• Revamp the appalling planning system - only 7.5% of the land is settled.

I can't see any of that done above by the self-interest Tories.

They hit the nail on the head. These inbreds have no idea. HIPS is a great idea and should have been tightened to what it was originally intended.

Nonsense. An approved, independent company doing the survey, CORGI, Part P, water, searches, etc can do the lot for both. Many houses have TWO surveys done, when one can do the lot. The HIPs will be costed into the price. It will also prevent people putting houses on the market for speculative reasons with no intention of selling. It guarantees that all is well to the buyer the prime point.

The HIPs company does it all, it is just paid for by the seller. The seller cannot dictate what is in the HIPs or not because they are paying, no more that telling a CORGI inspection what to put on the report, it is a set format.

Look at a surveyors report it is full of exclusion: gas, elec, water, etc. to the point the biggest rip-off is the survey. HIP is a one point company doing it all for you - they get the experts to do the checks.

..and gas.elect, water. Many homes have hopeless water system with a cheap

They should have tightened HIPS not scarp it.It is great thing when done properly.

The original HIPs was highly comprehensive. They took too much notice of estate agents and RICS. They should have told that bunch of rip-off artists to piss off instead of trying to be accommodating.

The whole money laundering thing has just become an excuse.

I recently received three separate calls from NatWest inviting me to an 'account review' (aka 'sales session'). On one of them, I started off by being un-keen. At which point, the woman said: "Oh, I see you are receiving child benefit. We didn't know you have children". The oldest is

I've had my bank account with the N Provincial for over 40 years and a few years ago experienced the same issues. Polite "Sod Offs" sorted that out. I'm one of their esteemed customers with a Gold Card/ Private Account (whatever it's called) which resulted in me having so much junk mail. I rang and wrote telling them to desist ... and they did!

It is a bank and I want banking services, not points for a holiday that I do not wish. Focus on banking!