No, not that kind of HIP replacement - I’m not quite ready for the surgeon’s knife yet.

No. What I want is this: either a proper Home Information Pack with a survey that we can all trust or no damn HIP at all. And I want it now.

Why? Because I’m in a right old strop (grrr!).

After months (and I mean months!) of searching for a flat to buy, I finally found one I was willing to trade a kidney for.

Since then, I’ve been jumping through the usual house-buying hoops. But now the deal is dead.

It was the survey wot did for it. This raised various problems, among them the urgent need for rewiring and some further investigation of a few damp corners.

The vendor, despite my best efforts to explain that the market was at its peak, refused to negotiate on the price, so I took a deep breath and said OK, but I’d like to have an electrician go in there and come up with a quote for the work.

And then? Then their stunned estate agent comes back and says, sorry, they’ve taken the flat off the market and are now renting it out. It took a flame thrower and a shovel to scrape me off the ceiling.

HIP Would Have Helped

Okay, these things happen, and it’s their prerogative to walk away. And yes, yes, I know, I could just as easily have ditched them post-survey.

But look, I was a serious buyer. I didn’t pucker up and then refuse to kiss. How serious were they?

This whole debacle has made me reflect on Home Information Packs.  I can’t help thinking that we’d never have got to this point if we had a HIP with a proper survey, as originally conceived (before they dumped the Home Condition Report).

I know the property industry hates HIPs, and I know there are good arguments against them, but surely there’s some sense in providing buyers with a little more security? In return, sellers could reasonably expect the buyer to commit post-offer, and we’d all be a lot less stressed.

Because that’s the bottom line.  This is not just about the money. No. It’s about the months of searching, the endless paper shuffling, the daydreaming … the fact that I fell in love with the garden shed (sob!).

If you’ve just had a deal fall through, you’ll know how I feel – drop us a line, let us know what happened, and whether you think a proper HIP would have made a difference.

And if you think there’s a better way to buy and sell houses, let’s have your suggestions.

In the meantime, I’ll keep looking. But first I’ll take a break from it all, lie down in a dark (rented) room, and listen to some calming Buddhist chants.

Related Tags: Buying, HIP, Buying & Selling

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