The history of the HIP is a lesson in how not to make policy...
Michael Garson casts a wry eye over the politics & history of HIPs
The history of the HIP is a lesson in how not to make policy. The project started with the ambition to rid the world of gazumping and the diagnosis was that the delays in exchanging binding contracts lay at the heart of this problem. The mischief was believed to rest with sellers who spent no money on marketing the property for sale while buyers, under the doctrine of caveat emptor, had to do the legwork and bore costs at all stages.
The plan was to accelerate the information made available to buyers so that contracts could be signed quickly once a property was identified and price agreed. The driving imperative was that the cost of the exercise should fall on the seller. This was unpopular and a disincentive for sellers to market speculatively.
The fundamental defect in government thinking from the start until too late was the belief that conveyancing was a “simple process”. Reams of paper and consulting
