Landlords - avoid HIPs legally

I own 196 properties across the UK and have done quite well over the last 10 years and amassed £8m worth of equity in this time.

I decided on the 24^th of March 2008 I would sell 57 of my properties to realise some of my equity to buy more properties in Scotland and the North of England.

So I contacted some well known auction houses and they all insisted I needed a Home Information Pack (HIP) at a cost of £300 minimum once you included the VAT!

57 x £300 is well in excess of £15,000. I am not paying that!

I thought there must be some way of avoiding this HIP requirement without breaking the law. So I dug out the Statutory Instrument laid before Parliament and got to work.

After 2 weeks I cracked it.

There are 2 ways of avoiding the need for a HIP and it will work with every circumstance apart from:

The property you actually live in

Other than this circumstance it will work every time.

So if you are a landlord like me it will work with all your investment properties and your main residence if it is unoccupied.

The cost savings are obvious. But not only that. The amount of hassle you save from gathering all the HIP info like the Energy Performance Certificates (EPC), leasehold information, title documents, land searches and fixtures & fittings document will be priceless.

I am a busy businessman and I do not need a HIP provider on the phone to me telling me that they have chased the freeholder of the block of flats which I have a lease and they have had no response and they need ME to chase it.

Or the HIP provider bugging me for a completed fixtures & fittings document which takes at least 1 hour to complete per property.

So what is this information worth? Well it was worth £15,000+ to me! However I know I am the exception as most people do not have 57 properties for sale.

The cheapest HIPs provider I could find was £225+VAT. So you could not say it was unfair to ask a fraction of this to use the information time and time again saving you hundreds if not thousands.

So I am testing the introductory price of £47+VAT for the first 100 copies sold. If they sell too quickly I know there are lots of you that are suffering just like I was two weeks ago and I will be forced to push the price up. So act quick and buy now.