Certus Mortgage Solutions: Home Buyers Packs The legal view

The legal view: who is liable for what?

Buyers who find there is a problem with the house they have purchased will find there is some legal redress if the problem has not been mentioned in the Home Information Pack.

The Government’s detailed HIP regulations, produced earlier this month, insisted that all Home Inspectors must carry liability insurance.

That insurance must be structured so that even if the individual inspector goes bankrupt, dies or disappears, the buyer will still be insured.

Of course, that will push up premiums and mean that ultimately, packs could be more expensive but it will provide some comfort if an inspector fails to notice a large crack in the ceiling.

According to the Law Society, the home seller who provides the pack will not be liable, as long as he or she excludes liability from their contract, which is likely to become a standard feature of contracts.

Other links in the HIP chain may also be pursued if anything goes wrong. Solicitors are not allowed to exclude liability from their contracts, so can be pursued and other pack providers will as well, although there is no regulation of pack providers.

Kevin Martin, Law Society President, says: “The Law Society wants to ensure that the Government puts in place a robust consumer redress scheme to cover all aspects of HIPs. Solicitors who provide these packs will be regulated by the society. Other providers will not.”