The Conservative Party's manifesto commitment is to repeal the Home Information Pack Regulations.  We wholeheartedly support this move to get rid of HIPS and we are pleased to see that they have now been suspended, pending repeal of the relevant legislation.  HIPS have proved to be almost completely unfit for purpose, with research showing that over 90% of buyers never even look at them. The purported effect trumpeted by the previous government of simplifying the house selling process and causing less transactions to fall through has been shown to be inaccurate and unfounded.

In the past few years, in a difficult market, many HIPS have proven to be redundant in that by the time a property has sold the searches in it are out of date, (over three months old).  This means that the buyers (and certainly any mortgage company they are borrowing from) will insist that the searches are redone.  The seller doesn't have to renew them and so the buyers have to obtain new searches at their expense.  So, the sellers and buyers have both paid for the same searches to be done.  A waste of money that benefits no-one involved in the transaction, (but which provides significantly increased revenues for local authorities).  HIPS have added a considerable burden to the house selling process and spawned a whole industry of middlemen.

Conveyancing quotes come in many forms.  Some firms will quote a headline figure for the conveyancing that is very low.  Remember the saying "if it looks too good to be true it probably is".  Always work out the total figure including disbursements.  This is because some firms quote a low figure and then add on as additional fees elements of the work that are really part of the legal fees payable to the firm, such as a fee for acting for a mortgage company or redeeming a mortgage, completing a stamp duty land tax return, dealing with leases and leasehold enquiries, or even a contribution to the firm's' professional indemnity insurance, amongst other things. 

Often these quotes do not make clear that these "additional fees" are payable to the solicitors and not a third party, thus giving the impression that the solicitor's fee is low.  The only way to check the value is to calculate the whole figure, including all the additions.  You will find that many firms who advertise very low rates actually come out as expensive compared to us.  We think this misleads clients and we do not do it.  Our quoted fee includes all elements of legal work and we do not pass off parts of our legal fees as "additional fees".