Anyone putting a house on the market will now be familiar with HIPs, the best part of £400 report that any buyer will do again anyways ?
However, my central heating boiler a 4 year old combi, serviced annually without fail, on the HIP report "new boiler required" that's a
good start when a potential purchaser reads the report, 1st thing they will ask, "grand off for a boiler mate ?"
Reason, because its not a condensing type, so according to HIP's report rip out every perfectly good boiler and replace them? cheers chaps.
Not good
WHAT !!!!!!
So there is nothing wrong with it, apart from the fact its non condensing. This pee's me off.
Whats the justification (and if someone quotes energy saving i'll ask them to justify the expense of mining the ore, refining it, producing the
boiler, shipping it to you, then someone coming fitting it vs keeping the existing inefficient boiler!)
waste of f'ing time all round
Well technically on our HIP report its condemned, we have full corgi install paperwork, service book up to date, it works absolutely fine.
The test to condemn it, open cupboard door, its not condensing, "need a new boiler"
Isn't there a regulatory body for this latest crop of bandits? to appeal / complain to, looking at the training they've had they are
definately not qualified to make such statements.
[Edited on 26/3/08 by r1_pete]
Cheers John, I am having a crap week and now you tell me when I have a "Hip's" done on my house soon the boiler will need scraping, great. What a rip off country we exist in.
Well you could always screw the cupboard door shut and tell him its condensing........
Reason, when asked how much installation is in the loft my missus told him "dunno" ( I was at work) He's put 150mm, there's only
100mm he didnt even look.
So much for HIP.
Not related directly to HIP's but, any dustman is legally qualified to take one look at a car at the side of the road and decide if if road
worthy or not. The qualification is that he works for the council and can fill out a form saying that the the vehicle should be
scrapped.
Isnt it the case you have to have started a hips to put the house on the market. not completed one?
Time to play the system. commision but always be out.
just another stealth tax-would any of us not buy a house based on the facts raised in the hips package?
also i have a hips booked for tommorow morning i will be making sure that they do go in the loft-might as well try and make them earn some of there
fee!!!!
they also do a costing sheet of ways to improve your house say by insulating the walls, and then note down that it will take 15 years to recoup the cost of the instalation from saving in your bills.
Whilst I'm by no means a fan of the HIP, the issue in this thread really isn't a problem with the HIP, it's a problem with the person
who carried out Jon's survey. There is nothing in any regulation to say that a non-condensing boiler must be replaced. The person who wrote this
report was incompetent and you should:
a)not pay the fee until the report is changed or
b) have a new report produced by someone else and take the company in question to the small claims court to recover your fee.
one snag here is that i think they all want payment first.then if you are not happy and want to get another report you would probably pay again-short
term result nearly a grand out of pocket-long term might get half of it back.
definately agree though re the condemming of the boiler-sounds similar to what you might read on full house survey,stuff like the insulation in the
loft would not meet current standards----------no s***T sherlock but it did meet it when built and thats all that matters,granted it could be improved
on(like the boiler)and that is all that need be said.
also re the hips many agents will not let you source your own(ie some cheaper ones on the web)unless yuou pay an extra fee(£85 i heard off)to
"validate" it.
This country is screwed.
HIPs are very rarely even viewed by potential buyers as everyone knows they are a waste of time. They are simply a way of preventing people putting
their houses on the market purely to speculate on the price with no intention of selling, and as such they seem to have been successful.
The prat who did my dad's HIP marked him down because he didn't have all energy saving bulbs... erm, hello...?
quote:
Originally posted by billynomates
This country is screwed.
quote:
Originally posted by iank
quote:
Originally posted by billynomates
This country is screwed.
Just read this thread on the subject, entertaining if nothing else.
link to thread
Yup - HIPs are a load of c0ck.
We live in a Tekhaus SIPs based construction - built by Kingspan. Uber eco-friendly, zero ozone depletion insulation, wood construction, sustainable -
blah blah and all that stuff.
When Mr Noob came to do our HIP he basically didn't know how to complete his questionnaire cos the construction of the building didn't lend
itself to his paperwork.
The house has no loft, so he couldn't look at the insulation - however we managed to convince him that the roof SIP panel had 150mm built into
it.
We do have a condensing boiler (hooray!) but apparently if we had a condensing combi we would be better off - whatever.
We even resorted to showing the guy a video of the house being built off the TekHaus Kingspan website. However the technical jargon they use on that
about air leakage rates and stuff like that left him for dead.
On the energy report they seem to focus on how many energy saving light bulbs you have - so a quick bit of e-bay investment and hey presto your rating
improves. When you move, you switch 'em all back. Its bonkers.
We finally got a C rating which apparently is good. Having gone through all this to get a reasonable "grade" for our house which is being
marketed as an "Eco-House" we then found out that nobody really looks at the material as buyers don't understand what it all means in
real terms. We have told potential buyers that our combined gas and electric bill comes to about £650/annum for a 5 bed house with 4 occupants. This
is easier for people to understand than all the cr@p in the HIP.
Still at least we made our chap work for his money - I have a friend who had their inspection that lasted 10 minutes - for £400. Value for money me
thinks...
Rant over.
Martin
mmmmmmm,
Yes we did have to pay up front.
No you cant put your house on the market until its paid.
Yes, energy saving light bulbs would get a better rating, but arnt they removable and not really a fixture or "built" part of the house so
to speak.
No, no one, as asked to look at the HIP.
Yes I think I will call them and ask the question re the boiler, not that anyone as taken any notice of it as no one as asked to read/see it.
We are after an house we have viewed, no we haven't looked at the HIP for that one.
May book an appointment with doctors, my HIPS killing me...... 
We will have to club together for an SVA steering wheel cat exhaust type kit for HIP's, a set of light bulbs..... 
oh one bonus I have learnt though, the property we are after is well old and needs lots of upgrading, if its rated F or below grants are available
towards insulation and boiler installs, better go take all those bulbs out........
quote:
Originally posted by JUD
Yup - HIPs are a load of c0ck.
Dont get me started on surveys and HIPS.
Last house i fitted an expensive Vaillant condensng system - only to find they extended the time needed for HIPS on that type of property - net effect
£2,000 wiped off my bottom line.
This house i havent bothered with new boiler. Its very old but works fine. If they put on the report its condemned i will be very narked unless they
can prove why. Walls have cavity insulation - but i cant prove it without drilling them (i have seen it when putting core drills through for
extractors etc).
Surveys are the biggest joke. Every house on my estate gets pulled up on roof cross bracing. The roof as fine when house was built. The fix is to nail
(screw) some diagonal bracing which costs no more than £20. Last surveyor actually said we could use old floor boards we have taken out (i bought new
CLS though).
First house i bought, homebuyers report said the front wall was bulging. It was 200 year old stone cottage - no founds or damp proof course etc. I had
to get structural survey. Nothing conclusive was found. He said it was settlement that probs happened years ago and as the rendering looked old and
wasnt cracked he was happy the house was fine. You will never guess what the bulge was..................... bloody electrical steel armoured cable
running across the front of the house that had been rendered over. I was not happy.
The big problem is that most buyers are scared to buy houses and do read the reports. They dont realise the context under which they are written - ie
surveyor wont put his neck on the line for a measly £300 / £600 / £1000 depending on what the survey is - so they cover themselves with weird
statements which other people take literally and either walk away or haggle and wont listen.
Would HIPS condemn the house wiring cos a socket was more of a old beige colour than a nice new sparkly white? Same difference as condemning a boiler
that isnt condensing. Why dont they just mark it down a grade on the energy score and say you can go up one by forking out £3000 that you will never
recoup.