Estate & Managing Agents - What are my obligations? 

The Home Information Pack duties apply to the person responsible for marketing the home - this will usually be an estate agent.

The main duty is to have a Pack that complies with the Regulations in your possession or under your control whenever marketing activity occurs, including marketing activity carried out before the property is actually put on the market.

Certain documents must be in the Pack when marketing starts, but marketing with an incomplete Pack may take place if it is expected that some of the documents will become available within 28 days and all reasonable efforts are made to obtain them as soon as possible. This covers the following documents:

• Searches

• Leasehold and Commonhold information

• Evidence of Title (for unregistered properties only)

You are under a duty to provide a copy of the Pack (or any part of it) to a potential buyer who asks for it. The only exceptions to this rule are where it is believed that:

• The person making the request could not afford the property in question

• The person making the request is not really interested in buying the property

• The potential buyer is not a person to whom the seller would wish to sell the property.

However, this does not allow the responsible person to unlawfully discriminate against anyone.

A reasonable charge to cover copying and postage costs can be made for providing copies.

You will be expected to make sure that the right documents are included in the Pack, but the legislation on Home Information Packs is not intended to provide that the seller or the seller's estate agent should be held responsible for the accuracy of the information contained in documents that have been provided by others. The penalty provisions recognise this, and will not apply so long as the seller or the seller's estate agent has reasonable cause to believe that the document does comply with the Regulations.