Property Lawyers seem to be getting it in the neck from all angles these days. The home information pack (HIP) regime has been controversial from the start and now the proposed HIP questionnaire has been branded a ‘crude attempt’ to help non-solicitor pack providers and push solicitors out of the conveyancing market. The proposed questionnaire will contain additional information about the property being sold and a government consultation has suggested that it can be filled out ‘without professional assistance’. However…

Law Society President Paul Marsh said the forms were unnecessary, but if they were introduced sellers should not fill them in without legal advice: ‘The consultation is a crude attempt by the government to help out non-solicitor HIP providers who are struggling because of the drop in the property market. They are trying to make the packs fuller so people can justify the cost.’

This comes at a time when property lawyers across the country are facing an increasingly difficult environment and reports of redundancies are becoming all too familiar.

Michael Garson, chairman of the executive committee of the Law Society’s property section, said it was a clear attempt to push solicitors out of the market. ‘This is not a cure for the problem,’ he said. ‘It’s a sticking plaster of the poorest variety.’

As with the original HIP proposals, this looks likely to be an equally unpopular measure…

Got a story? Contact team solicitr