Competition hots up among HIP providers

Estate agents, financial companies and even supermarkets are all making the running when it comes to providing Home Information Packs (HIPs). So how can the conveyancing industry make sure it doesn't get left out?

New research commissioned by Severn Trent Searches shows that just over a quarter of conveyancers are considering providing HIPs - despite being better qualified to assemble the packs than their main rivals.

The research, carried out by Enterprise Planning and Research, questioned 100 legal practices across the Severn Trent Water region to investigate their attitudes towards HIPs. The results indicated a surprisingly low number had planned to provide the packs, believing estate agents and financial organisations were most likely to emerge as providers.

Larger companies are expected to dominate the market and respondents predicted a fairly bleak outlook for smaller firms. One said: 'In the short term it will be search providers, estate agents and larger chains working in house. Longer term HIPs will be provided by financial institutions, probably even supermarkets.'

This attitude could be rooted in the profession's lukewarm reaction to HIPs themselves. Having carried out a similar study among estate agents, we can see that conveyancers were generally more negative about the packs, feeling more inclined to agree they were unlikely to work well in practice.

Self preservation

Despite the reluctance to take on HIP provision, respondents felt they needed to have some involvement to protect their business. To counter the threat from large organisations, conveyancers said they would most likely work in conjunction with third parties such as search companies. While only 27% had thought about providing the packs (compared to 49% of estate agents), 38% said they were considering acting as resellers and 23% had considered functioning as an agent between the seller and provider.

In these cases, respondents said they would also like to work in partnership with local estate agents, solicitors and surveyors. Delivery time, cost and ability to provide accurate, up-to-date information were also identified as key factors in choosing a HIP supplier.

Next steps

There's clearly a huge opportunity for the conveyancing industry to step in and make sure financial organisations don't take over the market. For smaller firms fearing the impact on their business, forming alliances now is key. By establishing good working relationships with search providers, or HIP providers, well in advance of the packs' start date, firms can offer not only their local knowledge and conveyancing experience, but also demonstrate provision of an end-to-end service.

<< Back to Press Releases