Fast home information packs * HIPS * selling a house * cheap mortgages * advice * fast home information packs * conveyancing solicitors * energy information reports

If you are selling a house with four or more bedrooms you will now need to get a fast home information pack if you want to be get your house on the market quickly and ensure that everything goes smoothly with the sale. Conveyancing solicitors can usually offer advice on who to approach to get home information packs fast, as well as details of people who can prepare energy information reports for you.

Buying or selling a house is a costly business, so we have provided links to other sites where you can find out about cheap mortgages, low cost conveyancing solicitors, fast home information packs (HIPs), and energy information reports.

On the previous pages about home information packs, we looked at some of the documents that can be found in a HIP. Now we are going to look in more detail at one specific part of the home information pack - namely the energy information report.

The official name for the energy information report part of a home information pack is an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). It is because of a European Union directive that energy information reports have to be included in a HIP.

The EPC is a bit like the energy rating labels found on domestic appliances. The energy certificate gives your home an energy rating from A to G, with A being the most energy efficient and G being the least. The less efficient the home is, the higher the gas or electricity bills for heating are likely to be.

The energy information report will also give an indication of the property's environmental impact by giving an idea of its carbon-dioxide emissions.

Finally, the energy information report will show recommendations for how to improve the energy efficiency of the building. A potential energy rating will be quoted - i.e. the rating that the property could be expected to achieve if all the energy-saving recommendations were to be implemented.