Press release
CoPSO urges Government to use HIPs to protect home buyers against all environmental risks
Contact: Fiona Hoyle
Tuesday 30 January 2007
The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO) today urges Government to consider carefully what environmental information should be included in the Home Information Pack to protect home buyers from being liable for high clean-up costs.
In a recent announcement on HIPs, the Government set out its intention to review whether flood and ground stability information should be included in every HIP. CoPSO believes this does not go far enough in informing homebuyers about environmental risks and fails to recognise the threat from contamination.
Contamination poses a risk to both the health of the occupants and the value of the property. If contamination is found, liability for cleaning the site rests with the owner, and clean-up costs sometimes reach hundreds of thousands of pounds. Over 70% of housing transactions currently include an assessment of contamination.
CoPSO also highlighted the need for government to review the position of both the Environment Agency and Coal Authority as advisors to government on these issues. As Public Sector Information Holders, (PSIHs) both organisations stand to benefit significantly if the information they hold is required in HIPs. The EA came in for criticism in the recent Office of Fair Trading report into PSIHs, and the Coal Authority has a monopoly over the use of Coal Authority data.
Commenting on the Government’s announcement, CoPSO Chairman Fiona Hoyle said:
"As the market currently stands, over a million contamination reports are sold each year whereas there is little demand for specific flood searches and ground stability reports. We strongly urge the government to demonstrate its commitment to making sure home buyers receive comprehensive information before they put in an offer, by reviewing the inclusion of all environmental information in HIPs.
The government must ensure that it provides a fair deal to consumers who want to know accurate and relevant information. The best way to ensure this is through a competitive market, and we shall be pursuing government to ensure that this is achieved."
Notes to Editors
- The Council of Property Search Organisations (CoPSO), is the leading trade association for the property search industry. Members provide a range of property information reports including local, environmental, mining, drainage and water data and produce over 2m searches each year. CoPSO’s overall objective is to drive both market and product improvements to deliver the industry’s vision of faster and better informed property transactions.
- CoPSO has represented the search industry on the Government’s working groups reviewing the content of Home Information Packs, to be introduced in 2007.
- Contaminated land information plays an important role in the home buying process in informing buyers, lenders and conveyancers of environmental factors which could adversely affect a property. The search is cost-effective, property- specific, easy to read and includes a formal risk assessment by a professional environmental consultant.
- The Law Society recommends that solicitors consider contamination risk in every conveyancing transaction. This approach is also adopted by the Council of Licensed Conveyancers.
- Over 70% of residential conveyancing transactions now include a contaminated land screening report.
In September 2006, CoPSO launched the Search Code incorporating:
- A Code of Practice
- Training requirements
- Independent registration and compliance functions
- An independent adjudication scheme.
- Robust insurance provisions
The introduction of the Search Code underpins CoPSO’s firm belief that, in the interests of consumer protection, only those search organisations which adhere to prescribed standards should be able to provide searches as part of the home buying process. www.propertycodes.org.uk
Council of Property Search Organisations
www.copso.org.uk
