Home Information Packs (HIPs) - Home Inspectors

The Government has now decided that, at least for the time being, the Home Condition Report will not be a compulsory part of the Home Information Pack, but will remain as a voluntary 'authorised document'.

This is a fundamental shift in Government policy that was outlined in the DCLG statement of 18/7/2006.

However, the Government has stated that only a Home Condition Report can be included in a Home Information Pack and only a Licensed Home Inspector can prepare a Home Condition Report. The Energy Performance Certificate remains a compulsory part of the pack and will require a physical inspection of the property.

All Home Inspectors, regardless of existing experience or qualification, have to obtain the ABBE Diploma in Home Inspection before they can apply for a license to practice as a Home Inspector.

The decision on whether to pursue the Diploma in Home Inspection qualification is now a question of likely consumer demand given that the Home Condition Report will not be compulsory.

The Government has indicated that they will pursue the Home Inspector Certification Scheme and promote the advantages of the Home Condition Report with an ongoing marketing campaign to consumers.

If the Government are serious about moving the Home Condition Report forward and its eventual integration as a compulsory part of the Home Information Pack then the home inspector qualification will be a valuable asset.

Only time will tell whether the Government has true commitment to the Home Condition Report and we can't offer any further advice on whether to proceed with the qualification. Unfortunately, we are probably back to a wait and watch situation.

There will certainly be opportunities to provide Energy Performance Certificates that remain a compulsory element of the Home Information Pack. However, this will also be open to those who only train for this limited part of the service and this will undoubtedly drive fees down. Asset skills have just published draft details of the Energy Inspector National Occupational Standards and draft Functional Map for Energy Assessment.

We understand that in addition to the ABBE DEA qualification, details of a City and Guilds equivalent will be announced shortly.

The Home Inspector training is fairly detailed and is certainly not a walk over. A good summary of the requirements for qualification are given at the ABBE site and the National Occupational Standards for Home Inspectors sets out the level of competence expected.

The assessment centre fees are £1500-£2000 exc. VAT and there's more to pay if you require additional training.

The total cost of training can range from just the assessment fees, to around £6-8000 exc. VAT for a total training package for new entrants. BRE, RICS and SAVA assessment centres are now offering this service in an intensive 12 month format. Its certainly worth speaking to all three as costs do vary considerably.

Have a look at the RICS training programe brochure as an example.

Now £6-8000 exc. VAT is a lot of money in anyone's book, but funding is available via the Learning Skills Council by way of a Career Development Loan, on terms that mean the course fees can be paid back only once you start earning money as a Home Inspector. Details can be found at the Life Long Learning site.

For those existing potential Home Inspectors lucky enough to be working for an outfit with an approved QA scheme, the qualification route is more straightforward. The ABBE now only requires a witness statement to say your QA manager has audited your work and you definitely are God's gift to Home Inspection and you can then forget the remaining portfolio of evidence.

This means that qualification time could theoretically be 28 days. It will be interesting to see how many companies continue to qualify their surveyors in this way.

Current Accredited Assessment Centres for the Home Inspector Diploma:-

Download a copy of the current draft of the Home Condition Report which shows the format of the report, but if you’d like a copy we’ve translated into Word format email us at mail@hipsdirect.com.

Another useful document is the Draft guidance for Home Inspectors (February 2005).

Professional Indemnity insurance for Home Inspectors is now available in the insurance marketplace on traditional 'date of claims' basis.

A number of brokers can now place cover on fairly reasonable terms and we have been quoted around £500 for a single Home Inspector in the first year. The brokers St Giles Group have been very helpful in providing us with up to date information on the PI issues and Simon Gale can be contacted at their Borehamwood office on 020 8236 7420.

We have also been in negotiations with a Finance Plc to establish how independent Home Inspectors will be able to compete with the corporates with regard to deferred payment for Home Information Packs. If you would like further information, email finance@hipsdirect.com

The Home Condition Report is no longer mandatory as part of HIPs, but the Energy Report or Energy Performance Certificate certainly is. This gives each property a SAP rating indicating the overall energy efficiency and recommended improvement measures. The EPC could well become one of the most important documents in a Home Information Pack for prospective purchasers, particularly with increasing energy costs and the prospect of Green Taxes on poorly performng homes.

The Energy Performance Certificate will obviously give the Government free information on what measures are required to reduce energy consumption in buildings to comply with their Kyoto and EU obligations.

There are currently only three authorised energy rating organisations To be perfectly honest, the specification for SAP software is fairly well defined and all the systems we have looked at do the job. Most of the assessment centres have SAP software integrated with their Home Condition Report writing systems.

Have a look at the latest version of the Reduced Data SAP documentation.

If you have no experience of SAP rating and would like a preliminary play, a free download is available from ECMK to run on a pda. This is not the Reduced Data SAP software for which ECMK are now accredited, but gives a good idea of the data collection required.

A full list of approved SAP software programs is available from the Building Research Establishment website.