Estate agent inspection motives questioned

With Home Information Packs (HIPs) set to launch on 1 June, a broker, who wished to remain anonymous, called for trained home inspector estate agents to be banned from conducting inspections on properties on their books.

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He said: “This represents a massive clash of interests. If an estate agent has a number of properties that they are going to sell, they are more likely to gloss over some of the details in their report to ensure that the sale goes through. It would not be in their interests to hold up the sale, if they can sell the property. This could be a major problem. It gives the non-regulated estate agents even more power, which shouldn’t be allowed.”

However, Mike Ockenden, director-general at the Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP), indicated that estate agents who did falsify information, or gloss over details could lose their license.

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He explained “There is nothing to legally stop estate agents, who are trained home inspectors, in conducting the report. However, I think most will use an independent inspector to do the job.

“Home inspections are subject to scrutiny and it would certainly not be in estate agents’ interests to gloss over any details in the property to attempt to push through the sale.”

Ockenden added that due to market controls imposed by the government and other organisations, home inspectors would need to be able to explain and back up their findings of any property they report on.