ABSTRACT
Introduction In 1999 the Blair government proposed a reform of the process of buying and selling houses in England. The aim was to make the housing market work better by speeding up the process, introducing more certainty and dealing with the problem of gazumping, whereby a buyer would find themselves outbid at the last minute and after they had thought the seller was committed to selling to them. The proposal was for a Home Information Pack (HIP) to be prepared by the seller of a dwelling, which would include a structural survey, as well as the property search, deeds, etc. It would include, therefore, all the information a buyer would need and it would only have to be provided once instead of a survey being commissioned by anyone considering a purchase.
