Issue 5


14/06/2007

Home information packs and your business.
The Home Information Pack (HIP) programme is being delivered by Communities and Local Government working in partnership with industry stakeholders, including the National Association of Estate Agents, the Law Society, the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Association of Home Information Pack Providers, the Land Registry and Which?, to deliver the programme on the 1st June 2007 implementation date. Following on from a lengthy consultation process and after a series of trials, the final regulations were laid on 29th March and on 19th April 2007 HIPs regulations came into force. Therefore from 1st June 2007, HIPs will become mandatory.

For a transitional period, to be reviewed after six months, a property can be marketed with an incomplete HIP, specifically without local searches for 28 days, as long as the following documents are in place:

1. Index
2. Sale statement
3. Energy Performance Certificate
4. Evidence of title
5. Evidence that other documents have been commissioned

Every effor t must be made to obtain missing documents within 28 days.
Penalty charges will be levied against estate agents for failure to comply with the requirements of the HIP legislation. The initial level of penalty would be £200 per day of non-compliant marketing, with the possibility that these fines could be increased to £500 per day. A large number of HIP providers are currently in the market. In many cases, estate agents will be dealing with these companies for the first time.

Many people envisage that one of the key areas of interest will be the commissioning and undertaking of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). Again, there are many options available for commissioning EPC, which must be carried out by a suitably qualified Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA). Here at MAP Chartered Surveyors, we have 25 years’ experience of undertaking residential property inspections within specified time frames to meet appropriate deadlines, and of course we are well known to most estate agents throughout the South East London and Kent areas.

In what will be a challenging period of change for many businesses, we can offer the comfort of a familiar name, backed by many years of practical experience of delivering on time every time.

We shall have in place ready for 1st June a team of Domestic Energy Assessors who will have the benefit of working within a tried and tested management structure geared specifically for deadline achievement, and with an enviable and proven track record.

We are continuing to build direct relations with local estate agents who will benefit from dealing with MAP, a company quality-assured to BS-EN ISO 9001: 2000.

Here at MAP Chartered Surveyors, we offer over 100 years of surveying expertise and also bring to the table the track record of inspecting over £500 million worth of property each year.

Local companies keen to develop a relationship with us are encouraged, in the first instance, to contact our Energy Performance Certificate Co-ordinator, Dorothy O’Rourke, on 0845 63 44 187, or via email: dor@mapsurveyors.co.uk.

In what will be a period of uncer tainty, we believe we can offer a level of proven experience and practical assurance which many of the new players in the market will be unable to guarantee. Cer tainly, as the new era of HIPS is heralded, there will be winners and losers, and those local estate agents able to offer the best quality of service will cer tainly obtain a competitive edge.

By building a good relationship with such businesses, and as an established local business ourselves, we look forward to the challenges, with the assurance of a company already vastly experienced in this type of work.

WE’RE NUMBER ONE!


Information provided by one of the country’s top introducers of mortgage business has recently confirmed that the number one position in the whole of the UK for service turnaround times is currently held by MAP Chartered Surveyors. This follows on from six consecutive months of premier-level production and is a credit to the whole team at MAP - who will be bringing these established and proven high levels of quality to the production of Energy Performance Certificates from 1st June.

LORCAN LAWLER JOINS MAP


Lorcan qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1981, having trained in private practice carrying out commercial and residential valuations in Dublin and throughout Ireland. He specialised in rent reviews and leases and carried out compulsory purchase work for major new road projects linking towns and cities.

He then worked for two years with a firm of loss adjusters, dealing with residential and business insurance claims.

In 1985, he joined the Valuation Office where he was involved in residential property valuations for taxation, together with rateable and commercial valuations for the State.

Lorcan moved to Irish Nationwide Building Society in 1990, where he set up an in-house valuation team carrying out mortgage valuations for the building society. This team carried out all of the mortgage valuations for the society in the Dublin area, achieving quick turnarounds and a high standard of valuation. This was at a time of major residential development in the Irish market, which was about to enter the era of the Celtic tiger.

He returned to commercial property in 1995, when he was appointed Property Manager of National Irish Bank’s, responsible for the management and development of the bank’s portfolio of properties. NIB was part of an international group that also owned Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks and Lorcan liaised with property professionals throughout the UK in setting up management and purchasing contracts and driving cost efficiencies for the bank.

He worked with McDonald’s restaurants in Ireland for five years acquiring and developing sites for new restaurants throughout the country. This brought him into contact with a range of property professionals, developers and planners throughout. As part of an international brand, he worked closely with European colleagues to ensure that best practices were transferred throughout the company. Lorcan moved with his family to London in 2003 and worked with a major firm of residential mortgage surveyors where he renewed his experience of carrying out residential mortgages and homebuyers’ reports, working throughout South East of London and Kent. He

Lorcan believes that by joining a dynamic and fast-growing practice such as MAP he will have the opportunity to achieve a closer contact with clients and customers and will be able to provide a more personal service. He enjoys working to tight deadlines as part of a team.

In his spare time, Lorcan is a keen motorcyclist and has toured in the UK and Europe.