Homeowners face having to pay hundreds of pounds extra because Home Information Packs (HIPS) could be out of date by the time their properties are sold, MPs say…
The packs, which cost on average £350, were introduced last year by the Government to improve and speed up the process of buying and selling a house.
Yet the near-collapse in house prices means that many of the local authority searches in the packs, costing up to £200, are likely to be out of date by the time they are sold.
This means that some homeowners could have to order more than one search as their home languishes on the market.