A group of property professionals released a ‘white paper’ today putting forward proposals to reform the controversial home information packs in a bid to speed up transactions and reduce abortive sales.

The HIP Reform Group, established in November 2009, said the packs should be retained rather than scrapped, as the Conservatives have said they will do. It suggested that with a little effort a future government could reform the homebuying and selling process with minimal resistance from the industry.

The group proposes that before putting a property on the market, the seller should instruct an adviser to prepare a pack containing all documents and information required for exchange. The pack need not be complete before marketing, but it must be commissioned.

Rather than taking a prescriptive approach, the content of the pack would be at the discretion of the solicitor or adviser compiling it, to take into account regional variations – for instance, in some areas coal mine surveys would be necessary.

The information would then have to be delivered together with a ‘consumer friendly’ summary to the buyer within 28 working days of the first day of marketing or, if sooner, 14 working days from the date of offer.

In order to comply with European law, the vendor would need to have commissioned the energy performance certificate and have this in place before marketing the property.

David Pett, a solicitor and pack provider who wrote the paper, said he anticipated that the adviser instructed to compile the pack would be either a lawyer or an existing HIP provider, with the responsibility for the preparation and delivery of the packs shared with energy assessors.

He said: ‘The proposal sees the assessor as a key member of the adviser’s team who would use the visit to the property for the energy inspection as an opportunity to engage with the seller and obtain information and documents.’

He said the idea is designed to bring practical and cost benefits to the consumer as well as property professionals, and could be introduced with ‘very light touch regulation’.

‘Its benefits are numerous, and include the quickening of transaction time, the reduction in abortive sales and greater transparency,’ he said.

Pett said: ‘The HIP has received a lot of criticism for stalling the property market, adding extra cost to a transaction and placing an unnecessary burden on sellers and buyers.’ But he said much of that criticism was not well founded.