Home sellers no longer need to buy a HIPS before putting their property on the market.

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The much disliked home information packs (HIPS) that have to be put together by residential property sellers will be scrapped by the new government – but energy certificates have to stay under EC law.

The move is part of the Con-Dem coalition agreement, but no date has been put on the demise of HIPS.

The government has two options, either delegating power to the new housing minister, who can cancel HIPS legislation if Parliament is not sitting, or wait and include the measure in the emergency budget.

Consigning HIPS in to the dustbin of cancelled Labour legislation will save home sellers from £250 and speed up the time for a property to reach the market.

The problem with tenancy agreements is lots of well-meaning web sites try and offer help with free downloads but have not got the legal resources to keep the agreements up to date as the law changes.

If you are letting out a house or flat and want to have a watertight legal agreement in place and want to avoid the common mistakes landlords make when setting up their own tenancy agreements, then  Property Investment Expert has teamed up with leading legal publishers Lawpack to offer you the Residential Lettings Kit.

The landlord toolkit takes all the worry away from the DIY landlord and includes all the the legal forms, tenancy agreements, eviction notices and background information that you need to rent your property, without the expense of a solicitor or letting agent.

The Residential Lettings Kit takes you through everything you need to know about creating legally binding tenant agreements and includes background information on:

• Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs)
• Creating a household inventory
• Using guarantors to safeguard rent payments
• Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme
• Tenant’s obligations during the tenancy
• Landlord’s obligations during the tenancy
• Rent control
• How to terminate a tenancy agreement
• What to do if you need to evict a tenant
• Where you can find further help

The Residential Lettings Kit also includes all the legal forms that you may need to start and finish a Tenancy Agreement:

• Tenancy agreements for England, Wales and Scotland (Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement and Short Assured Tenancy Agreement)
• Eviction notices to terminate the tenancy and deal effectively with rent arrears (for England, Wales and Scotland) including a Section 8 Notice, Section 21 Notice and Section 33 Notice
• Section 213 Tenancy Deposit Protection Form

All Tenancy Agreements in the Residential Lettings Kit comply with Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme legislation and are endorsed by the National Landlord’s Association.

The Residential Lettings Kit is for use in creating tenancy agreements where the landlord is not resident at the property. Click here if you wish to make a lodger agreement.

If you want single forms – go to our download page

If you are taking in a lodger you need to make sure all the legal bases are covered with an effective agreement that  covers your rights and your property.

To help you, Property Investment Expert has teamed up with Lawpack, a leading legal form publisher, to put together a toolkit for landlords taking  in a lodger.

The kit covers all the forms needed for letting out your room.

Starting with a lodger application to take important details, the kit provides all the legal paperwork and guidance a landlord needs to take in a lodger.

One of the most important forms is a lodger agreement (England and Wales – see below for other agreements) – that covers a landlord who wants to rent a room in a furnished property where the landlord lives and shares common parts of the property, like the bathroom, toilet, kitchen and sitting room, with the tenant or tenants.

If you are not living in the property, don’t use this agreement – you need a separate assured shorthold tenancy agreement.

Don’t forget that you can keep track of what your lodger pays with a rent book.

If you are ending an agreement with a lodger, you may also want to consider  the lodger termination document.

You can also buy a comprehensive book Taking In A Lodger – A Legal Guide that takes you step by step through the process.

These downloads come with clear guidance on how to fill the form in and how to use the agreement with your lodger.

Different agreements apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland, so be sure to click the right link and check the title before you download.

Complaints against letting agents have soared by 45% in less than a year, according to the Property Ombudsman.

Buy to let property disputes made up 49% of Ombudsman Christopher Hamer’s workload in 2009, compared with 28% in the previous year.

Better consumer awareness, more houses changing tenants due to recession and more letting agents voluntarily joining the redress scheme policed by the ombudsman were all quoted as factors contributing to the increase.

Mr Hamer urges whoever wins the general election to improve protection for consumers and property owners using letting agents.

He said: “This needs addressing swiftly. My message to any property owner or prospective tenant is to ensure that they use an agent who is a member of a recognised trade association or any agent who is a member of the Property Ombudsman scheme.”

Mr Hamer also said he felt that letting agents were not forced to belong to a redress scheme was an “alarming inconsistency”, although many letting agents have joined one voluntarily.

Overall, his report stated that letting agents have to “up their game” and treat property owners and tenants better.

During 2009, the Property Ombudsman dealt with 562 disputes, down from 799 in 2008. The average award to complainants was £339, down from £666 in the year.

The Property Ombudsman service is free for consumers with a complaint about an estate agent or letting agent belonging to the scheme.

Maximum compensation is up to £25,000, and the ombudsman’s decision is binding on agents who belong to the scheme, although consumers can reject his findings and pursue the matter through the courts.

A  letting agent that repeatedly failed to protect landlords’ and tenants’ monies has been ordered into liquidation in the High Court on grounds of public interest following a Government investigation.

The investigation by the Insolvency Service found that Foster Stone Limited repeatedly breached agreements with both landlords and tenants and failed to protect tenants’ deposits and landlords’ monies in relation to rent and administrative fees.  As a result numerous complaints were made resulting in 31 county court judgments against the company totaling £82,177.

The company’s business was primarily operated through a web site.  Visitors to the company’s trading address at Surrey Docks, London, found the premises seemingly unoccupied, although they were apparently watched by a security camera above the door.

The grounds for winding up were that the company:

• Failed to co-operate with the investigation

• Failed to deal with deposits received from tenants in accordance with an authorised scheme in accordance with the Housing Act 2004

• Made misleading statements on its website and purported “We feel sure that your experience with us will go a long way towards changing your perception of the property industry for the better”

• Failed to file accounts and annual returns

• Made unexplained payments and was insolvent

In ordering the company into liquidation, Mr Registrar Simmonds said that he was satisfied that the evidence before him, supported by the earlier appointment of a provisional liquidator by Mr Justice Sales, showed there was a strong case that the company should be wound up in the public interest.

Downloading free landlord forms online can end up costing property investors a fortune if they don’t check the terms are in line with the latest legislation.

Property investors need to take extra care  free form downloads are regularly updated in line with changes in the law – but few have the knowledge or experience to check the jargon.

That’s why buying solicitor-approved forms that are regularly reviewed and updated are best.

Serving the wrong form could mean risking a judge rejects a possession order weeks down the line at court hearing – meaning the whole process has to start again.

Spending a few pounds to get the latest version makes sense when compared to the time, hassle and money involved in having a case thrown out.

For someone without legal training, court processes can be complicated – take the regular landlord problem of dealing with rent arrears.

If a landlord is chasing unpaid rent, the right notice has to be served – a Section 8 notice, if the tenant is in rent arrears of more than eight weeks/two months (depending if the rent is paid weekly or monthly), or a Section 21 notice.

The Section 8 notice has a notice period of not less than two weeks, and a Section 21 notice has a notice period of not less than two months and it must not end before the end of the fixed term. In many cases, you can use both notices.

The key decision is serving the right notice to match the right circumstances. Landlords must also take care drafting notices requiring possession as it’s easy to make a mistake.

For instance, legal requirements are different depending on whether a Section 21 notice is served during a fixed term agreement or after the fixed term has ended.

Serving a legal document is often not just ticking a couple of boxes and signing a form, but many landlords can follow the procedures themselves with the right guidance.

A straightforward, easy to understand guide about evicting tenants is included in the Lawpack Residential Letting toolkit.

This comprehensive guide covers all a landlord’s legal obligations towards a tenant and explains step-by-step how to deal with common letting problems, like rent arrears and problem tenants.

The kit includes template letters and forms that landlords can copy for multiple use plus an invaluable update service that keeps all the information up-to-the-minute until the next edition of the kit is published, which is generally about every 12 months.

Almost a third of Birmingham estate agents provide unsatisfactory home information packs according to a survey by the city’s trading standards officers.

The most common faults included: no information provided on the complaint or redress procedure; no consumer information; no company contact details; technical issues with the search; and HIP index-related issues.

Sellers must buy a HIPS pack for a property before estate agents are allowed to put the home on the market.

Results of the study carried out at the end of last year revealed that, of the 37 packs examined, 70% were rated satisfactory or reasonably satisfactory, and 30% rated unsatisfactory when measured against the HIP regulations.

The survey set out to test approximately 25% of the estate agent market within the Birmingham boundary.

Conducted in conjunction with independent regulator the Property Codes Compliance Board (PCCB), it was the most comprehensive estate agent and HIP enforcement exercise carried out since the introduction of the sellers packs in 2007.

PCCB chairman Richard Footitt said: ‘This exercise gives a timely and reliable insight into the current level of compliance within the industry, and should serve as a warning both to estate agents and HIP providers that they must comply with the law and regulations.’