The Housing Act 2004 received Royal Assent on 18 November. Part 5 of this act requires a Home Information Pack (HIP) to be provided before a residential property can be offered for sale. In 2003 ODPM (now DCLG) published a consultation paper setting out detailed proposals for contents of HIPs. The Government intends to facilitate a ‘dry-run’ to trial HIPS this year and HIPs are set to be compulsory in England and Wales from June 2007.
