New legislation due to be introduced in England and Wales in 2007 will mean that anybody marketing their home for sale will have to have a Home Information Pack compiled. A copy of this must be made available to any prospective buyer. Similar schemes operate in other countries such as Australia and Denmark.

Currently, it is the buyer's responsibility to have all the relevant searches and surveys etc carried out on the property, and a lot of the information about the property is only made available after an offer has been made and accepted. Often, problems come to light at a late stage in the process, which can cause buyers to pull out of the transaction completely, causing chains to collapse. The government is hoping to reduce these problems with the introduction of HIPs.

The new system places the responsibility and expense of providing all the relevant information about the property on the seller. The packs are likely to cost in the region of £500 - £600 (slightly more in London) and are designed to reduce the time it takes to get from the offer stage to completion. It should also reduce the number of time wasters because of the financial commitment required by the seller to place their house on the market, and the information available upfront to prospective buyers, which will ease their decision making process.

HIPs were first piloted in Bristol in 2001. There have been dry-runs of HIPs schemes in several areas of the country. The release of HIPs is scheduled for 1 June 2007, after which all homes that are marketed will require a HIP. However the government will be operating a 'transitional period' that will allow homes that are marketed before the 1 June 2007 to stay on the market up to 31 March 2008 without a HIP.