The introduction of the new Home Information Packs or HIP’s as they are more commonly known is set to plunge the UK housing market into a depression when they are introduced on the 1^st June this year.

Many housing experts are predicting that property prices will fall dramatically as thousands of home owners flood the market in a rush to sell their homes before the deadline, creating a glut of properties and creating a ‘buyers’ market.

All house sellers will be legally obliged to provide a buyers pack when selling their home which must include an energy-performance certificate, a new scheme introduced by the government in an attempt to clean up energy inefficient homes.

The main problem with the new packs is that there is a distinct lack of energy efficiency inspectors – the people assigned to sign off the homes and award the certificates and instead of the full number of 7,500 inspectors needed, so far there are only 1,000 inspectors trained and ready to carry out the new reports.

At a cost of £3,500 needed to train up the new inspectors, it is predicted that many estate agents will exploit the situation and charge home sellers double or even treble the price in order to sell their properties.

“Initially there will be a rush of people putting their property on the market prior to June in order to avoid having to provide the certificate” said a property professional “Then once June is upon us and as the properties start to dry up, there will be a shortage of houses coming on due to the lack of inspectors available to provide the certificates – this in turn will cause a turn-around in the housing market, forcing prices up”.

Yvette Cooper, the minister for housing is due to give a keynote speech at a gathering in London next week and delegates will be charged £60 a head to attend. The speech is expected to outline ways in which estate agents can benefit from the new packs which will also include legal documentation and searches but will focus mainly on energy conservation such as loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and windows.

Sellers will need to satisfy a number of energy efficient guidelines by law and the energy assessors will either operate through the estate agents or will be available to hire privately. Others will choose a specialised HIB agency to carry out the assessments and the repairs needed in order to pass the test.

Sellers who have marketed their homes at ant point in the run up to the June 1^st deadline will be able to escape the legal obligations of providing a certificate once they then put their properties back on the market after June provided they can produce evidence of previously marketing their homes such as estate agency particulars or even something as basic as a shop window notice.