Home buyers advised to read Property Information Questionnaires

However, buyers have not been following this advice as research shows that 77 per cent of buyers never look at the Home Information Pack (HIP).

No matter how many times the Government stresses that the Energy Performance Certificates are a beneficial thing, the fact remains that the public see little or no value.

As of April 6 this year, all newly commissioned Home Information Packs have had to contain a Property Information Questionnaire (PIQ) which is a legal document of actual ‘value’ to the purchaser.

The Property Information Questionnaire includes details of utilities and services to the property, access arrangements, Council Tax bands, changes to the property, parking arrangements, damage to the property, as well as leasehold information.

For the first time, buyers can obtain information relating to the property without having to incur the costs of a property lawyer to extract such information.

For example, they can see whether the property has ever suffered from flooding or storm damage and the seller is legally obliged to disclose whether they obtained the appropriate planning permissions and regulations for structural alterations that they have made to the property.

Simon Seaton, legal director of Fridays Property Lawyers, said: “It is very important for the buyer to have a paper trail evidencing receipt of the PIQ from the estate agent before the price being agreed.

“Once the buyer has the completed PIQ he can then use this as ammunition should any inconsistencies manifest themselves at a later date. Should the buyer choose to withdraw from the transaction due to inaccurate information in the PIQ, the buyer may be able to recover legal fees and out of pocket expenses which could run in to thousands of pounds."

He added: “Prior to April 6 a buyer would have very little chance of being able to recover legal costs in the event of a verbal statement given to him by the estate agent or the seller directly.”